Martha Silano

Oh, Thumbelina

poor Thumbelina! Because croaky-croak-croak
was all she heard. Because a home in the mud.

Because he who said croaky-croak-croak
would be her wedded one. Because toads

don’t care what humans want, but a little
fish might, a little fish with fishy minions nibbling

her lily-pad seat till the leaf breaks free. Bye, bye,
croaky-croak-croak! But poor Thumbelina:

the floating was fleeting, as were relief and glee,
because a beetle three times her size grabbed her

by her thin waist, stuck her in a tree. Oh, pity
pretty Thumbelina not-so-pretty on account

of no antennae, on account of two legs.
For to be human is to be ugly, for to be thoraxed

is to be beautiful, for to be carapaced is preferred,
to be scintillatingly six-legged. Ugly like an earwig

to a human, most ugly of all, so the beetle swoops her up,
drops her onto a lone white daisy, where she pulls

her knees to her chest, relishes her utterly repugnant.

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Martha Silano’s fifth full-length poetry collection, Gravity Assist, appeared from Saturnalia Books in 2019. Previous collections include Reckless Lovely and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, also from Saturnalia Books. Martha’s poems have been featured in Poetry, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, and the Best American Poetry series, among others. Honors include the North American Review’s James Hearst Poetry Prize and the Cincinnati Review’s Robert and Adele Schiff Award. She teaches at Bellevue College, Seattle’s Hugo House, and as a Poet in the Schools in Skagit County, Washington.