"The Symbolic Life" by Hayan Charara

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 25, 2017   The Symbolic Life   Hayan Charara

They kept showing up, for days, dead on the windowsill, and for days I did nothing about the ladybugs except to ask if their entering the house unnoticed and dying before I saw them was symbolic. Thinking so was easy. They symbolized birth and death, change and rebirth. It was also possible the tiny beetles embodied an inborn need to show themselves, to turn up in every and any place, even as the dried-out remains of the once lively. Or they stood for the burden of being one thing relieved by becoming another, which all the world's children suffer.   This went on and on, and could've gone on forever, so finally I opened the window and blew them into the wide open because everything and everyone should get a chance to be mourned, and they got theirs, but first they had to die, which is life, not symbolism.            Copyright © 2017 Hayan Charara. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Apparently, ladybugs will enter houses in cold weather seeking warmth, and though they appear dead, they are hibernating. Sometimes, of course, they are just dead." —Hayan Charara   Hayan Charara is the author of Something Sinister (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2016). He teaches at the University of Houston.   Photo credit: Rachel de Cordova Poetry by Charara   Something Sinister (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2016) "In the Greenhouse" by Eugenio Montale "Beautiful Thinking" by Angie Estes "Insect Assassins" by Jackson Mac Low Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038