We’ll Soon Be Eating Woodlice

We’ll Soon Be Eating Woodlice
(or: Catastrophic Climate Change-Induced Starvation Will Lower Your Standards) 

What’s it mean to dream of roly polies?
You may know them well
as woodlice — pill bugs to some —
Armadillidíum are crustaceans
that inhabit wood
and taste like shrimp for all I know
do you know, though, it’s likely we’ll be searching soon for these within the walls
and floors of freezing rooms
and feasting on the heaps of slate-grey peas
we’ll spoon up gratefully — see
why else would I dream that one,
the volume of my tongue,
was crawling along on the bowl of the lamp
on the ceiling
of the kitchen
?

Elliot Sperber is a writer, attorney, and adjunct professor. He lives in New York City and can be reached at elliot.sperber@gmail.com and on twitter @elliot_sperber