Pest Control

I attended a lecture on pests yesterday
where a very large numbers were present,
including a termite who munched noisily
and made life most awfully unpleasant.

To my left sat a bottle green aphid
who kept eyeing my pink paisley tie.
"Is that silk I can scent?" he faint ventured,
inching closer with hope in his eye,
"'tis a while since I last had the pleasure,
and for such I would most surely die."

For a time I just chose to ignore him,
but persistence was his middle name;
and closer he came, so much closer,
like a moth hypnotised by a flame,
so I crushed him 'twixt thumb and forefinger
with the thought it was none of my blame.

For 'tis man at the top of the food chain
with all nature at his beck and call;
But then I paused for a moment and
wondered, what fate may eventual befall,
when all that remains of this planet
is the greatest destroyer of all.

Reviews

[Pete]

very clever. i have recently learned that people have taken to dipping cicadas in chocolate and eating them. there's a reason and a purpose for everything under the sun. there is usually a day of reckoning when the shoe is on the other foot. well said. i quite enjoyed this and it made me think ... :)

[Crowley]

That is the question isn't it? The sheer numbers of large and super large animals, that have become extinct at our hands including several varieties of sapiens like species is shocking. It may be necessary though as we make our way to becoming data. This was a very clever write. At fist I though it was going to be a metaphor for men coming on to women...lol. That's a whole different type of pest control.

[Beccy]

Very perceptive of you regarding how you thought the poem would turn out to be a metaphor for men coming onto women, as It did actually start off along those lines, then took a last minute turn.

I confessed this to emmajoy in my reply to her earlier review.

[Crowley]

I did not read that review, but especially at work or on sites like these, the relentless onslaught has got to get to be too much.

[Crowley]

I am sure Emma Joy also would agree with that...lol.

[Samuel Dickens]

Yes, what comes around, goes around, and our upsetting the balance of nature will result in our own demise. I gotta admit, though, I would've squashed that aphid, too. This is an entertaining little tale with a very serious message.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

yes, when we become the bugs to be squashed....when the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak.
We need to take a look at ourselves and ask....are we appreciating nature and the creatures within it?
Or are we destroying it because of our vanity?

[Neville]

I would like to think this proves to be a lesson for all of them predators out there .. but I know we both know that aint gonna be the case ... every now and then tho, I am reminded of the fact that I have some very good reasons to be ashamed of my own species ........... your words here kinda reinforced that fact ... Well executed Beccy :)

[Paul Bell]

Man, it's like he was born with a bulldozer and tractor attached and continued around the world digging and flattening everything in sight. I think even the biggest idiot can see mother nature is rebelling, and that's never a good thing. Who would have thought rivers in Britain would be drying up. Maybe the insects can't wait for humans to disappear off the face of the earth.

[Robert Trakofler]

LOL, I love it we may well all be eating soylent green one day:/ I still think the roaches will rule the planet eventually I love how this was written in such a sweet cadence and tone with a nice dark gut punch ending

[roarke]

Ah, the food chain, much like the supply chain.... man is delusional and his zeniths are imaginary. But a paisley tie... now that is something entirely different. Entertaining B.

[emmajoy]

' But then I paused for a moment and ~ wondered, what .. .. .. '

Your mind literally soars in the most imaginative and metaphorical of academic trails! Not saying too much, others must find the small itches that upturn the words into what is a first class finish.. and moral.

Brilliantly worded, Beccy.

[Beccy]

Confession time....

This was birthed in my mind back in 2017, after I actually attended an economics lecture on the subject of gender disparity, (you know, income inequality and all that.) A real pest of a chap was sitting next to me throughout and I had to brush him off several times; (wished I could have crushed him 'twixt forefinger and thumb actually,) but part way through writing this, which I intended to be no more than a wry swipe against such nuisances, it took a different turn, hence the closing verse.

Funny where the mind takes one, isn't it. X

[emmajoy]

It certainly is, Beccy! Extraordinary how both fact and fiction tickles the mind and its various compartments! X

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

A very enlightening poem, Human beings get rid of insects like they are nothing while we slowly kill ourselves.