PEST CONTROL
A flea kicks me down the stairs.
A fly keeps me guessing.
A gnat figures that a full grown man
is a suitable opponent in a battle to see
who can bite the other first.
A mosquito is not one to ever
fall in love with me.
It’s always hate at first sight.
And then there’s that fly,
buzzing here, there.
treachery with wings.
A bed bug steals my sleep.
A tick ticks me off.
The fly finds a crumb
then it calls me a crumb
under its fly-blown breath.
Ants are on the march.
They wish to enslave me.
It’s a contest as to whether
they or the termites
will get to me first.
The moth imagines itself
a tiger moth airplane.
It threatens to drop the big one.
The fly points out
exactly where to hit.
But. while its attention
is elsewhere.
I grab the swatter.
slap it into insect hell.
Thus, the fight back begins.
Meanwhile, Martha irritates me.
Jenny only calls
when I don’t want to hear from her.
Chrissy two-times.
Holly has no time at all.
But please be patient, I tell them.
The invertebrates saw me first.
