I’m eighteen, helping my girlfriend
clear out her grandpa’s shed.
In among the tarpaulin sheets and plastic chairs
I saw it: the biggest bug in the world,
right there on the wall. A hideous thing.
Was it a centipede? A scorpion?
My girlfriend said it was nothing more
than the shadows playing tricks.
We broke up not long after.
Her light bothered me.
The things that were there.
The things she couldn’t see.
Joshua Seigal
