AI-generated graphic created by Nightcafé for The New Verse News.
Evil can be “defined most simply as the use of political power to destroy others for the purpose of defending or preserving the integrity of one’s sick self.”
M. Scott Peck, The People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil
At home I hear a muffled buzz
then press my ear to a wall—
it feels soft
enough to push
my finger through.
I cut out a square
and find a mass
of larvae squirming
in the light, eating
the backing—
a replica of the Constitution.
I hire an exterminator.
Sorry, but you have an infestation.
See the sawdust—they’re gnawing 2-by-4s.
They’re even going after steel beams.
Look at the tiny shavings.
There is no guarantee we can eradicate
what’s happening.
Please do what you can, I say.
Each day I listen for the lies.
William Palmer’s poetry has appeared in Ecotone, JAMA, On the Seawall, One Art, The New Verse News, and elsewhere. A retired professor of English at Alma College, he lives in Traverse City, Michigan.
