How must it be to see with compound eyes: <br />myriad images of the same view <br />each with a slightly different focal length? <br />How can your nervous system not overload, <br />exploding your tiny brain into a billion fragments? <br /> <br />& not just visual stimuli, <br />but th'entire sensory network <br />which defines your experience of the world: <br />the rush of air as you buzz past uneaten orts <br />guided by the heady scent of decay; <br />the rapid beating of gossamer wings <br />supporting a body physics would aver <br />is far too massive for flight, <br />sheerness belying their tensile strength. <br /> <br />The acute awareness of each hair on <br />your plump body or spiny legs <br />to the slightest disturbance of air, <br />enables you, more often than not, <br />to just evade the certain death <br />of rolled-up newspaper <br />or lethal lattice of a fly-swatter. <br /> <br />(When I was a boy I would test my reflexes <br />trying to catch your forebears as they took off; <br />knowing success by the rapid beating of wings <br />against my palm. Then, in a gesture <br />of god-like largesse, I released them to fly away.) <br /> <br />Know then, I stand in awe of your <br />defensive maneuvers & warning systems, <br />but these considerations notwithstanding <br />I reach for an aerosol of poison <br />& toxify the room <br />leaving you to die <br />tiny body twitching spastically: <br />another victim of chemical warfare. <br /> <br />(Copyright 9/25/2001)<br /><br />Hugh Cobb<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/another-victim-of-chemical-warfare/
