Poets on the Porch preview: Lynn Levin

As Fox Chase gears up for its second annual Poets on the Porch event at Ryerss Museum and Library, six of the seven poets slated to read at the event have shared some of their work with us. You can see them perform other works at Ryerss on Aug. 20 at Ryerss at 1 p.m.

The She-Bat By Lynn Levin

Bats did not live in the eaves, you said, nor did bumblebees though three attended her in death. We found her like a crumpled

glove, brown leather, on the step before your study door as if she had been knocking there for a very long time.

I wonder how long the ardent thing had banged about the attic, alone, craving the lidless evening—the bat

without her mate, without a bite to eat (I do not think she had a taste for bees). After how much high-pitched calling out

and how much awkward singing did she fall before the door? I think she knew it was a door. That is what terrifies and grieves me.

“The She-Bat” is from Imaginarium (Loonfeather Press, 2005).

First published in The Fox Chase Review