Beetle Wife

[billy]

don't explain the poem, let the reader unravel it. make the poem earn its keep.
while the cruelty aspect is raw and working hard, you could remove a few words to give it more power.

( I wrote this poem about an incident of domestic violence I witnessed a few months ago that left me traumatized, I am comparing the violence to when boys smash bugs ) 

beetle wife. smash her with thumbs and 
watch red ooze onto the skin. lick it off 
if you want, tastes like summer.  is [if you want doing enough to stay?]
antennas burned, shrinking like matchsticks  a suggestion would be a word before matchstick, something like dead create an image [i think it would be shrunk because of the tense]
wings ripped off and blown away with breath 

I am reminded of the meat market, plastic 
baskets full of raw meat bathed in blood 
the silence sprawls across us / my mouth is stunned