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      June 26, 2019The Book of FlyJohn Philip Johnson

      for Mike Allen

      1:1
      Feeding on the living is good,
      but feeding on the dead is better.
       
      1:2
      Nestle your offspring in the rancid.
       
      1:3
      The air is heavy; let it work for you,
      but fly only until you find beauty.
       
      1:4
      Shit is beautiful.
       
      1:5
      Rub your hands together before you eat.
       
      1:6
      If you land on the wrist that holds the swatter,
      consider yourself lucky, not clever.
       
      1:7
      Remain humble, if you think of anything.
       
      1:8
      You only have a few days;
      stay simple.
       
      1:9
      Breed when you are able.
       
      2:1
      And when you are licked
      by the frog’s tongue,
      or swallowed by a songbird,
      or felled in a cloud of nerve gas
      and lie twitching, unconcerned,
       
      2:2
      know that it is the honor of a fly,
      it is its purpose,
      to die.
       

      from #63 - Spring 2019

      John Philip Johnson

      “I went to ReaderCon in 2011 to meet Mike Allen. He was the editor of Mythic Delirium, a magazine that, along with Goblin Fruit, had liberated me from the academic poetry tradition. I had learned to have fun with poetry, thanks to them, and I wanted to meet Mike and learn more. He gave a workshop on genre poetry in which he mentioned flipping perspectives. He made a stray comment about flies knowing their purpose was to die. I mulled that line over for years, and this came out one summer afternoon. I was sunning myself, in my wife’s garden. I had my notebook with me, as I usually do. There were flies around.”

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