Opinion & Analysis
Abstract
The Atlantic
Sunday 06 September 2026, 15:00 UTC
By Jane Hirshfield
1 min read
Key Points
Fruit flies exposed to many dead fruit flies lose their fat stores, die more quickly than those kept naive. I who have lived long now and will die of my living, not of my grief, and more than once from a public garden stole roses— red ones and pink ones, scented and not— stammer before these troubled and truthful fruit flies. This poem appears in the October 2026 print edition.
Fruit flies exposed
to many dead fruit flies
lose their fat stores,
die more quickly
than those kept naive.
I who have lived long now
and will die of my living,
not of my grief,
and more than once
from a public garden
stole roses—
red ones and pink ones,
scented and not—
stammer before these
troubled and truthful fruit flies.
This poem appears in the October 2026 print edition.
Originally published by The Atlantic
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