Content warning: Depiction of death or terminal illness.

Flies at the Wake

          What kind of aria
      do you sing for the flies
that lay siege in church pews?

         Veins splaying leaded
light into a thoughtful twitching
              melange of color.

      Their wings, skin flaked and
stained-glassed, have carried them
  to this final buzzing rhapsody.

Will the promise of grave dirt offer them
   warmth like a mother to her stillborn,
       aware that her baby will sing out

        from the many mouths
       of grubs before its own?
If it exists, may my love be less cruel

than a hand thrust onto the smallest body,
                   deafening as gun fire.
                   May my wake be only

            the soft flicker of
       my hued lashes beating
from such profound refraction.

About the Author
Ayden Massey is a queer poet and indie filmmaker. They are a summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a dual BA in English and Gender Studies. Ayden has received varying academic accolades, visual awards, and literary publications, including features in Idiosyncrazy Magazine. A New York Times Found Poem Finalist, Ayden explores themes of body archive, generational trauma, violence, and queerness, blending images of decay with incessant sound. Ayden also enjoys ethnography and was recently recognized as Mary Turner Lane Award nominee for their pelvic floor dysfunction research.