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.
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