ONCE I WAS A PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS by Stevie Edwards

by Stevie Edwards / Friday, 16 August 2024 / Published in Issue 30

It’s hard having been
a plague, all swarm and plunder:

nobody texts you to make plans
for happy hour, nobody asks

if you’ve had a good day
or if you fidget from hunger.

Even plagues desire company
from time to time. In retirement

from my status as a plague
of locusts, I am now the absence

of a plague of locusts.
Sometimes I hear a buzzing

and think friends! But it’s just
the memory of how I used to

make music. I had a song once
and it made the crops weep

but filled me with sky.
Stranger, I need you to

tell me if there is forgiveness
for former plagues

in your system of ethics.
I need you to tell me

if my wings could
sound beauty, not famine.

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About Stevie Edwards

Dr. Stevie Edwards is an Assistant Professor at Clemson University and Poetry Editor of The South Carolina Review. Stevie’s poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. They are the author of Quiet Armor (Northwestern University Press, 2023), Sadness Workshop (Button Poetry, 2018), Humanly (Small Doggies Press, 2015), and Good Grief (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012). They hold a PhD from the University of North Texas and an MFA from Cornell University. Originally a Michigander, they now live in South Carolina with their husband and a small herd of rescue pitbulls.