love bugs

male and female cucumber beetles
look exactly the same
(at least to me)
and do it incessantly
at the sweetest spot on my squash leaves
the base of the leaf, its wrist really
where the veins are thickest
crowded like ropes

they attach to each other at their rears
end to end, facing outward
like tiny foreign cars
that have gotten their bumpers stuck

one, whom I imagine to be female,
eats, quiet and still
her little mouth parts fastened deep into a swollen green vein
the other, I’ll call him male, doesn’t eat
but wags his little head back and forth
and from time to time rears up slightly
and waves his front legs in the air

I wish they wouldn’t do it there
it hurts the plant

of course the plants see it differently
they’re more concerned with me

I mean, the weeding and watering, is fine
it’s nice, greatly appreciated in fact–
but what’s it all for?
who is this guy
with the pant leg and the knife?
when will it be my turn?
and which part of me will he eat?