Friday, September 26, 2008

ODE TO THE BUGS OF SUMMER

Pitter pattering along, they have crawled in mass this summer; from the cockroach in the trunk of my car to the mosquitoes circling around my head to the hundreds of ants setting up camp in the dishwasher to the crazy little guy with the spinning red butt I spotted on the porch to the Eisenhower-dollar-sized spiders descending from the roof of the garage to the carpenter bees drilling holes in the porch to the cockroaches assembling for their nightly neighborhood watch meeting next to the fence to all the other beasts who cannot be named. With several cans of Raid, I have battled them ceaselessly, eviscerating battalion after battalion, but they replicate like Cylons controlling the backyard and creeping through the door cracks and pipes at will. If I were not a hygiene-obsessed Westside Jew, perhaps I could ignore them.


And who or what is this?

Now the weather is cooling and I am able to take a breath as they dissipate and slowly die out. During the fall and winter, the all-season cockroach will still appear in the middle of the night waddling across the floor, barely aware of the hovering figure holding the can of Raid. It is clear that it is not they who do not belong, but I.

2 comments:

Sheryl said...

Uuuuugggghhh!I would just die.

chucklesklown said...

your writing is so very superb adam...this will be a book! i love the photos!! my old photography teacher /pal dan marlos and friend have a site called whatsthatbug.com and you can send a photo and they will post it and tell you. or your bug may already be on there.
i love the gas station photos!!! bold peanut!!! BLOOlD! Squeegeeman no squeegee. And i still love the intro very much!! i read again. Great yob.Have you tried that natural orange spray for a-killing? i like it. love, chuckles