What Rough Beast | 10 27 20 | Chelsea Balzer

Chelsea Balzer
Compost

I’m trying to remember
when I first realized
the eroticism
of compost.

just this morning I
left the kitchen for
moments and
came back to find that
the flies had fucked out
a new army, birthed in the
festering berries.

a domestic emergency I,
still in my underwear,
carried the basket at once
to the shit heap where
the best mushrooms grow.

it bloomed beneath
my hands and I
felt the singe of recognizing
a thing is more
alive than you.

maybe the real question is
when did I learn that
arousal is less about
the touching of genitals

and more about
coming upon something
and with your whole body sensing
            its power?

—Submitted on 10/08/2020

Chelsea Balzer‘s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Yes Poetry, Plainsongs, Okay Donkey, Cigar City, Elephant Journal, and other journals. Thought Catalog, Omaha Magazine, and more. Her book A Pity Party Is Still a Party is forthcoming from Harper Wave. A therapist, Balzer is founder of Big Feels Lab, an organization empowering people to heal together. Follow her on instagram @theconnectionartist.

SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.

If you enjoyed today’s poem and you value What Rough Beast, consider making a donation to Indolent Books, a nonprofit poetry press.