A couple of years ago, I was involved in a colorful online discussion on the topic of killing insects.
People had interesting things to say and I cut out some of those lines and built a poem with them.

Bugs have souls
Written by VeggieBoards members
May 6, 2004

I'm especially plagued by those little sweet ants
that come in droves
and that I have to poison.

Roaches, silverfish, flies, the odd mosquito.
I try to capture them and put them out the window.
I swat them in self-defense.

(I like to say I kill the smart ones.)

Every now and then, I find a little tick in my bathtub.
They'll sting me if I let them stay.
They leave a residue that doesn't wash away.

So, right before bedtime, there is a mass slaughtering.

(When she came home from that, she cried on my shoulder for a few minutes…)

They were coming in from the walls
into the kitchen and biting me
invading the cat’s food and biting the cats.
There were thousands of them, so I didn't have another option.

God gave us these big, clumsy APE bodies!
Most other animals I put outside.
I think I might have seen one but it's hazy.
(Could have been a dream.)

So, I've gotten brave enough to get them on a tissue,
run to the toilet…and flush them to the sea.

I've also killed a Black Widow before.
Only the female ones need to take your blood.

(I have a couple resident spiders. They don't pay rent though.)

Here, swarms of mosquitoes are everywhere.
I don't know, maybe my blood went bad.
I won't kill them. They won't feed on me.

I live in the sweltering subtropical south.
I am usually paper white.
I'm an accomplished ant murderer.
I poison them with a blend of sugar.
I just stare them down and make sure they don't get ON me.

(I've always thought that bugs have souls.)


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