Eating Silkworms
Her mother lets us in.
Our smiles dry as paper
under our paper masks.
A framed photo in our hands, preplanned small talk.
Erika is just as beautiful now as in the photo,
her thin knees beneath the silky sheet.
Do you remember, Kim says, that day?
Tom brought into the office a jar
of silkworms from his trip to Korea.
He dared us to eat them.
We took a selfie to prove we did it.
Ugh, it was the texture! We laugh. We were
so brave.
Name other brave things she did:
Climbing Machu Picchu, Kim says,
Measuring the ten-foot nest
of the Australian mallee fowl.
Hiking Mt Kilimanjaro, I say.
We spin a cocoon of her stories.
Nobody says Chemo. Nobody names
the other brave things.
Did you hear, Erika says, the good news,
my best friend is coming from Alaska. It’s not
just the morphine, she’s really coming.
She talks of medical bills. A good home
for her cat. She can’t remember who she named
as her beneficiary.
Don’t worry, Bart says, we’ll check into it.
We’ll call you back.
She urges us to try the casserole
a neighbor dropped off. Her mother reheats it.
On our tongues, each bite we chew
uncoils into a white silk moth.
• • •
Faith Paulsen writes poetry just outside Philadelphia PA. Her day job is in insurance. She loves books, art, music and friendship. Her work appears or is upcoming in Scientific American, Poetica Review, Blue Heron, Philadelphia Stories, Book of Matches, One Art, Panoply, Thimble, Evansville Review, Mantis and others. https://www.faithpaulsenpoet.com/