Insectum

Insectum is the second place winner in the Synapse Storytelling Contest's creative writing category. Comments from Synapse editor in chief and category judge Ariane Panzer: This poem had a consistent and very original theme. The imagery was gorgeous and the ending of the poem, especially the line "I am compiled of movements/dancing orchestrations, a sum of my parts" tied the individual verses together beautifully.

Wasp wings dust my lips with pollen,

an anesthetic to numb the pain-

their needles dig holes around my mouth.

Like a spider spinning silk,

I sit with a spindle in darkness

linking loose strands of anxiety and panic

into threads of steel.

Swallowing my words like keys,

my lips are sewn shut with my neuroses.

Inside my soul, ants march, their thousands

etching highways through my body,

itching avenues though my skin,

pheromones to find their way home.

I am a vessel for virulent thoughts

cut out and borne through my veins.

Lids like smoke cloak my eyes-

the dull drone of hornets

drifting out after every blink.

Their nest houses my brain while

smoldering coals breathe sedation,

hums poised, smothered.

My exoskeleton fleshes out my face.

Gossamer wings flutter my blinks.

I am compiled movements,

dancing orchestrations, a sum of my parts.

My frequencies resonate

an exhaled pitch too high to interpret.

Lost inside my own components,

I do not warrant a second glance.