Inspiration does not come in equal measures and today it’s pretty thin. But let’s press on!  The photo turned out quite well.  And when you’re thin on content, the best thing to do is encourage group participation.  So here you have the chance to choose the ending of the poem and wonder what it says about you as a person — part poetry, part psychology, with maybe a bit of phobia thrown in for fun. (Just think how much better tomorrow’s poem might read, in the fall out of this one)

BUG!

Typically I won’t allow bugs to live if they sneak into my personal space. I lived in the tropics for a while, where bugs are large, leap alarmingly and don’t submit flight plans. (There was this cockroach one time, near my bed. I grabbed a flip-flop, swiped at it, missed and that’s when I learned that cockroaches fly, but not well – they lack rudders, or flaps or whatever it is that enables precision flying. Or they just might be the evil you know they are. You see, I was wearing a skirt…) So when I saw something move on the kitchen floor yesterday, reflex told me to stomp, but curiosity told me to stoop. Curiosity, except when employed by cats, is kinder. I coaxed it onto a piece of paper and took it outside. Cast in natural light it captivated: gem-cut and trimmed in emerald with an exclamation meme tattooed on its back with a straight-edge attitude – “I am a True Bug! Do not squish me!”

Ending # 1 – So I didn’t. I took a photo, wrote a poem.

Ending #2  – So I put that bug in a box and I put that box in another box and then I mailed the box to myself and when it arrived… I smashed it with a hammer!

© 2016 Laurel Archer

Inspiration for Ending #2 – a quote from The Emperor’s New Groove suggested by my husband John (who does have to put up with me writing poetry after all)