Rob Schultz taught American literature at Western Michigan University and Virginia Commonwealth University before drifting into radio and voice work. His first novel, Styll in Love (Van Neste Books, 1998), is still in circulation. His work has appeared at Rattapallax, Slant, Sou’wester, The MacGuffin, Warwick Unbound, and West Branch, among others, and is forthcoming at Prime Mincer.
Tadpoles
By Rob Schultz
By Rob Schultz
Once, nine, crouched over edge of pond
out back, I observed them, enormous,
about to be transformed into frogs.
They were swarming by the bank. Through
fine membranes of distended stomachs
you could see tangle of their guts.
They were replete with process
of transformation, sluggish.
They were tempting me to reach for them.
But when they were pulled out with a stick
onto the bank, or touched, their bulging bellies split, and contents leaked out
in a confusion of knots.
In a minute flies fell upon them.
My heart was beating fast, shaken
by what was happening.
