Where do we draw the line <br />between living things that we kill, <br />and those we let live? <br /> <br />I am tortured <br />when I unwittingly kill a ladybug <br />or mistakenly stick it with paint as it sleeps <br />(you know how 'invasive' they are at spring time <br />if you work in home restoration) . <br /> <br />I am tortured when I unwittingly step <br />over a busy ant, then see it fall limp <br />after striving to wake up and carry on. <br /> <br />The black flies and mosquitoes <br />that bay for my blood when I work? <br />I clap at them with both hands, <br />and tell myself: ‘I do this in self-defense’ <br /> <br />But deep down the guilt persists: <br /> <br />‘Must thou kill? What right do you have <br />to take away life freely given by another? <br />Is it because you feel like a lord of creation? ’ <br /> <br />And so I worry often. <br /> <br />And sometimes I have tried to save <br />some of the insects I have unwittingly hurt. <br />I remember one desperate moment <br />I got a fly stuck in paint, <br />and after I failed to save it, <br />and it wouldn't give up, I wondered aloud <br />if there were a hospital for insects, maybe I could have– <br /> <br />then I let go my stupidities. <br /> <br />That would be too much for my friends to bear, <br />if they could hear that. <br /> <br />But where do you draw the line <br />between living things that you kill, <br />and those you let live?<br /><br />Chi<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mosquitoes-and-blackflies/
