MY COLEUS HAS MEALYBUG
- gaudy, yes so
- white & sticky
- white as cotton but
- with legs
- & feel it
- clings to
- petals & spins
- a web from stem
- to stern
- veins
- empty into
- bellies
- white
- the red fades slow
- & painful into pink
- insipid white
- cocoon it won’t
- let go the poison
- doesn’t faze
- it white
- oh how it spreads
- the leaves
- bend back
- into themselves
- the white
- folds
- death
- from green
- invaded from the inside
- sucking out
- the breath of what
- was once
- my pride