Anthony Lawrence is a poet and academic in Queensland, where he lives on Moreton Bay.
Entomology: a Love Story
I became aware of a future
love affair with insects
when I saw, on the lapel
of a woman’s coat, a pair
of blue and green beetles
I’d mistaken for antique
enamel brooches. And while
I was young and under
the low cloud cover
of over-protective parents,
I could still recognise
beauty when it came
to rest in front of me.
Before the woman turned
and moved on, the beetles
climbed from the dark
weave of her winter coat
to her hair, where
they opened the secret
compartments inside
their backs like ox-
blood panels, then set
the miniature hydraulics
beneath their wings
in motion, a departure
remembered as much
for its transparency
as the signature
ignition of faith
in the nature of desire
I had been cultivating
at home, when alone,
in the dark.