DESCRIPTION:
My ode to bugs. Wanna squish'em? Hmm, think twice... ;)

DEDICATED WITH LOVE TO LOUISE AND JULIEN

Ode to Insects

Swift and silent in the grass
Swaying slowly in a mass
Spinning silken webs of death
With a sting they steal our breath

Buzzing boldly through the air
Some are foul and some are fair
Underground and in our walls
The amazing insect crawls

Holographic dragonfly
Swarm of locusts in the sky
Praying Mantis, little fleas
Nest of wasps and hive of bees

Hills of ants are all around
Hints of networks underground
Caterpillars, butterflies
Wings, antennae, disco eyes

Legs in sixes or in eights
Centipedes and body plates
Shiny beetles fully armed
By the black widow be charmed

The red hourglass a sign
It is useless to malign
All the sundry insect hordes
Of the planet they are lords

Up the tree-trunk, down the leaf
Spindly legs have claimed their fief
Filaments and trails of slime
Woven through the weft of time

Not a narthex ever built
Holds the lowly and the gilt
Insects so lubricitous
Intertwined and bound with us

Diamond dew brings dengue fierce
Spider's mandibles do pierce
With invasion, famine strikes
Termite, moth, destruction likes

When the hour of death has struck
It's sarcophagidae's luck
Innocent of tragedy
He promotes his progeny

Daddy longlegs shakes in fear
When a human being draws near
Spider freezes, picture-still
Ant speeds up, for good or ill

As we fight the insect swarms
The sciamachy conforms
To the shape of madness plain
Over earth, and us, they reign

Underneath the desert sands
Kings and Queens of ancient lands
Buried in all finery
Scarabs as protectors see

"The Catterpillar on the Leaf
Repeats to thee thy Mother's grief
Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly
For the Last Judgment draweth nigh." (William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence")

Copyright Clare Pellerin 2013