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