How the Dung Beetle Finds Its Way Home

Abstract

How the Dung Beetle Finds Its Way Home Eugenia Leigh (bio) The Milky Way's glinting ribbon helps the dung beetleroll his good ball of shit back to the ones he loves.But blind him to the sky with as little as a hat,and he will swerve like a drunk who, if he makes it home alive, might find the family, soured with waiting,gone. Drawers cleared, beds cold, even the watercolor arkof giraffes and raptors pulled from the face of the fridge.See? I want to tell my missing father, it's a metaphor so simple it's almost not worth writing down: even beetles need the starsto nudge them back to where they need to bewhen they need to be there—toward their little ones'gummy grins ever pardoning the grisliest parent. I am thirty-four with a son the day my mother tells meshe enrolled in a four-day seminar about how to be a good mom.A little late, I know.Once, in a rage, I left my husband and our sleeping child. Where did you go, friends ask when I tell the story.I wish I'd had a grander plan. I wish I'd stood on the roofof our building and, empowered by that single Brooklyn star,I'd ripped up the book of my parents' sins. Or I wish I could tell someone the truth: that I fearI am the kind of woman who could leave the one good familyGod had the gall to give her. Really,I sat on the stairwell leading up to the roof and wept [End Page 111] until a large bug threatened my life, at which point I recalledthe dung beetles, stopped blaming my parents, and—thanking the metaphorical stars—I rolled up my pile of shitand trudged back home. [End Page 112] Eugenia Leigh Eugenia Leigh is a Korean American poet and the author of Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows (Four Way Books, 2014), winner of the 2015 Debut-Litzer Prize for Poetry. She is the recipient of fellowships and awards from Poets & Writers Magazine, Rattle, and elsewhere, Leigh's writing has appeared in numerous publications including The Rumpus, Waxwing, Pleiades, the Best New Poets 2010 anthology, and the 2017 Best of the Net anthology. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Copyright © 2020 Emerson College