A Sunday Afternoon Poem

A Moral Dilemma

I killed 6 last night
3 the night before
Buddha says: Harm no living thing
Christ says: Do unto others…
Is an insect an other?
I think about it
I evaluate
Which is most dangerous?
That spider looks like a lethal one
But spiders eat mosquitoes are dangerous
OK only the spiders with the creepy double antennae get whacked
The buzzing, biting ones have to go
Gnats, flies, mosquitoes
Die at the smack of the New Yorker
I feel guilt
I try to do the right thing
     But
When I wake up with a bite on my butt
I feel no remorse
Lights glaring at midnight
Armed with my weapon
Anything creepy and crawly
Dies

~ Andrea Quigley