READ A POEM
COMPANY
by Ben Stein
Two fat carpenter ants
set up camp in the hair
on my calf as I sat on their
bench and penciled a guess
in the crossword. (MENACE,
I tried, for 5 Across. It was
incorrect.) Then I got distracted
by the Mother’s Day scene
on Coventry: A snake lady,
the brawling puppies, old
guy whose bow tie matched
his motorcycle. The ants
nestled just shy of my knee,
rode me home, a tickle I barely
noticed. They disembarked
in the apartment, met the cats
and made for the kitchen.
They will be right at home;
if Julie & I had a mascot, it
would be a crumb. And if they
can stay then so too can a certain
shower curtain spider, since Julie
is away for a week. A rented carriage
house outside Atlanta, where she,
I’m sure, slips her foot from her flip
flop, slaps flat some poor southern
spider on the bathroom floor,
pinches it in a square of toilet paper,
and flushes. My Ohio spider
gets a goosebump:
Someone
must’ve stepped on my grave,
she says, and asks the ants
if they felt a draft.
“Company” by Ben Stein. Copyright Ben Stein, 2018. Used by permission of the author.
Ben Stein lives in Cleveland with his wife, Julie. Along with the cats, there’s now a dog too. A crawlspace for the spiders. Ants in the kitchen, compost full of worms. Microbes abound. Ben’s chapbook about making mistakes and being afraid all the time,
Springtime and Important Things to Remember, is available from Red Flag Poetry. It features illustrations by Cleveland Heights artist Chad Berry, who also knows a thing or two about bugs. Follow Ben on
Twitter.
WRITE A POEM
Reverse one of your poems by writing it backwards, last word first, ending with the first word. Then revise. This
search engine will do it for you (and provide other prompts).