yellow jacket trap

yellow jacket trap

sick awe as i watch the yellow jacket

trap odor lure a dozen frenzied insects

joined soon by hundreds aggressively

swarming the plastic tube unable

for an hour and more to find entrance

i go on to church, praying

for insight into the confusion we call life

returning, i retch at the increased frenzy

of the swarm at my back porch

fifty, one hundred have found their way

in but cannot get out and are trampled

by crazed newcomers and more newly

trapped walking on their bodies

climbing the plastic walls only to fall

back onto the black mass, only some

of which is struggling

and still more come

and more

grateful, fascinated, i stare

sickened, i turn away