requiem for a wasp by: carstie clausen

Okay, so i was a bad boy as a kid
 Typical enough I spose, back in the 50's...
Blowing up ant mounds, fantasizing Red Chinese
 Oh yeah, we were programmed for war
 Just like today's electronicuted Gamers.
   Mind Kontrol is so much fun
   Feeding festering schoolboy fantasies
   Fertile fodder for imperial follies
   Wham! Bam! Excuse me Maam
   Didn't mean to hurt anybuddy
   Was just feelin my oats
   Like in some cowboy shootemup
   At the y'all come back Saloon
   Oaters, they usta call em.
 Shot mourning doves perched on a wire
 And sparrows at the grain elevator
 Peckers, poking at spilled grain by the tracks
 Just looking for lunch:
 Flys with a spraycan nozzle,
 Poisoning the kitchen air as a bonus:
 Got me back once, the yellowjackets did
 For stoning their pendulous hive on a branch
 Had to mudpack the swelling face...
 Made me look a human disgrace.
   So older now, allegedly wiser,
   See a wasp landing on the prison windowscape
   Grab my pencil, teasing, tickling,, barely touching
   Antennae flailing, she mounts it...
Aha!  So now the fun begins...
Sidle the stick up by the windowsill
Nothing doing...
She's seen that frustration already,
So i try the newspaper for a landing site--
Nope.
Reach waaay up the glass, hoping for disembarkation--
No dice there either on that solid mirage of freedom.
   Getting tired of the game, i wave it in a big arc
   And it works!
   Jet-assisted takeoff, kinda sorta
   She flies off, darting around the source of daylight.
Somebody gets nervous--
Such a frightful presence
What gall! disrupting this precinct's quiet
Imagine that!  Wild nature invading manspace
Something's gotta be done.
   A volunteer librarian rolls up a newspaper
   Knees on the floor, flails the weapon:
   Beneath the table the wasp flits and flees
   So he strikes again and again--
   No luck.
Now a second attendant enters into the fray
Determined look, strutting strides intent:
A third one introjects "been here since yesterday"
As number two strikes, strikes, SMITES..!
   Victory at last:  One bold step for mankind.
   One dead wasp for Mother Nature.