A Primer on Dung Beetles

Those known as rollers
roll dung into balls,
either for food or prelude to
a night of pleasure
in the brooding chamber.

Others, the tunnelers,
bury it where they find it;
a third, the dwellers,
neither roll nor burrow
but simply live in it.

Usually, the male rolls the ball.
The female follows behind
until a soft spot is found
where they go underground to mate
and leave it for the larvae,

but just when you think it's dark and it smells,
they look up to the Milky Way
and stars by which they navigate,
the only bugs that do,

before wings spread as if to fly,
and they turn into two sacred scarabs.