A Bat in the Pantry – a poem by Richard Collins

A Bat in the Pantry

	A life hidden in seclusion is like what?
		– Bai Juyi

No warning 
just a soft flutter that skims /
the top of your head
like a plump putto / not quite 
touching down and even softer /
swooshes then darting
this direction and / that 
into the too-bright light 
rushing to / find its way
out the door into fading / dark 
of first morning blush

But at least it / didn’t land 
like a horrible webbed hand /
in imitation of a human hat / some
misshapen mammalian beret
or / kite-like yarmulke clinging 
like a pat / on the head
from a pedophile priest as /
creepy and reassuring
as corrupt / religion can be
as soothing as a / nightshade cap
or an angelic evasion / of the truth

We are no longer scared of / such
surprises that no longer surprise / but
you never know what’s next / ? ? ? / bull
frogs with long tongues in the toilet / men 
with long guns in the aftermath / stealthy
copperheads in the rocks / healthy wolf 
spiders scaling bedroom walls / and now 
these indigent bats lost and down / on 
their luck demanding their squatter’s rights /
indignant in furry flight after hanging
out / all night in the pantry 

It took some doing / to get it out
safe and ultrasound as / it kept banging
its fangs against windows / and screening
swooping here and there as if / it knew
what it wanted but not how to get it
/ searching for something the pantry did
not / have nor the kitchen nor the house
nor the / woods nor the world as it
flitted upon / rosy dawn air on down 
Sherwood Road toward / Buggytop Trail
and home to Lost Cove Cave. 

Richard Collins is abbot of the New Orleans Zen Temple and lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he leads Stone Nest Zen Dojo. His recent poetry has been nominated for Best Spiritual Literature and appears in Amethyst Review, Clockhouse, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, MockingHeart Review, Pensive, Sho Poetry Journal, Think, and Willows Wept Review. His books include No Fear Zen (Hohm Press), In Search of the Hermaphrodite: A Memoir (Tough Poets Press, 2024), and Stone Nest: Poems (Shanti Arts, 2025).