shredded newsprint
    moistened, yellowed, pungent
shelters squirming handfuls
    garbage eaters, dirt makers, red wigglers
slimily slithering
    beneath, between, among
silent, secret orgy in the green beans
brownness from greenness
warm and heavy, dark and musky
beforeness from afterness
soft skins explore, recoil
    sing a single whisper of wriggling
neverending moistened newsprint
    baking soda rain
[written 1997 for a poetry class at Grinnell College]
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