Philip Neilsen

“Metamorphosis

A beetle woke up one morning
to find it had become Franz Kafka. There were many challenging issues. It had no literary background.

How it yearned for its former life, free amongst the silky flowers
and fragrant leaves.
The beetle’s journals
in their scratchy scrawl
were dark with pessimism
and thoughts of suicide.
What is the point of books
it kept asking. What is the point. In the end they will
only be consumed
by insects.


so its books came slowly.
It was stuck with a tedious
public service job.
An angry fiancée turned up
and demanded it marry her
without further delay.
The beetle felt no attraction to her but could not explain why.”
― Philip Neilsen