Air Show Insectarium

Thomas Quitzau

October 7, 2022

Manifold movements within confined space: 

Thick dead air provides mud daubers fluid, 

Hornets galore curve in acrobatic

Arcs and circles envied by Top Guns in

Their clunky light metallic shells, bug-eyed, 

Trained so well, screaming through thinner, colder 

Stratospheric superiority.

These planes—congruent parallel fence boards 

Separate bad neighbors rarely seen in 

Imprisoned impressionistic shade, dark

And light green yards—forests of wild uncut 

Trees jut right out of Earth— flora-stubble:

Her perpetual five o’clock shadow 

Covering this class of active aces.

Thomas Quitzau is a poet and teacher who grew up in the Gulf Coast region and who worked for over 30 years in Houston, Texas. A survivor of Hurricane Harvey, he recently wrote a book entitled Reality Showers, and currently teaches and lives on Long Island, New York with his wife and children.