Offering

Lea Marshall

I went upstairs to refresh the tea
on the altar, found a stink bug
balanced on the small cup’s edge.
He was poised so delicately, dipping 

his head down to reach yesterday’s tea
with honey. When you ask the internet,
What is the significance of stink bugs?
Everyone is helpful as usual. Symbolismguide

dot com says, stink bugs are known for their
persistence and resilience. The kind of
reputation drinking the gods’ tea
will get you, or lurking in the curtains 

all winter. But sometimes they just fall
on you, or you find them in your bed
and things start to feel a little personal
until Soulfulcreature dot com offers, 

In some spiritual practices, stink bugs are thought
to represent self-forgiveness, and maybe then you
brush them more gently out of your bed
onto the floor, maybe now you whisper, ok, ok.

Lea Marshall is the author of The Slow Hammer of Roots (Broadstone Books, 2025). Her work also appears in Attached to the Living World: A New Ecopoetry Anthology, and has been published in Rogue Agent, SWIMM, JAMA, Rust & Moth, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Diode, and elsewhere. She lives in Virginia.