- Camouflage
The wind-blown rain-driven leaf plastered to the doorjambis a moth, wings spread wide, a leaf-like moth;serrated edges of its silken grey-brown wingsdusted with cinnamon-colored markingscause it to resemble a dead oak-leaf fallen on cement basement stepsvisited by slugs and pillbugs, an occasional toad, come summer,small moths drawn to the lighted doorway.The bug stays for days perched on its doorpostawaiting the return of warm spring weather,braced against cold nights, fastened to cracked chalky white paintlike an arrowhead pointing our way.Seasons change, dead things come alive again. [End Page 135]
Rick Lyon’s book of poems Bell 8 was published by boa Editions. His work has appeared in the Missouri Review, the Massachusetts Review, and the Nation. He’s a boat captain from Connecticut, originally, now living and working in Chicago.