Compost

All humus & ions 

elbows at angles 

Bacteria, springtails 

heating peels into soil— 

That’s where everything goes: 

shibboleth, bibleot, trapeze, 

swizzlestick, disciple, subterfuge 

Granite mannequins pretending 

to be dirt in a forever pile.

 

About the poem:

Compost is about understanding death, but it’s also about renewal. “Compost” comes from composter, meaning “to manure” or “to dung.” Other ways of saying it are “from sperm to worm” or “from womb to tomb” or “from dust to dust.” I try to find the connection between plant and animal life, but I do it by listening.  – Sean Singer

About the poet

Sean Singer is the author of Discography (Yale University Press, 2002), winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, selected by W.S. Merwin, and the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America; Honey & Smoke (Eyewear Publishing, 2015); and Today in the Taxi (Tupelo Press, 2022) which won the 2022 National Jewish Book award. He runs a manuscript consultation service at www.seansingerpoetry.com