Insect on the Ceiling

Cherry

By Jane Hyphen

Mon, 16 Nov 2015
  • 966 reads
6 comments
 

 

There’s an insect on the ceiling

Out of reach, it watches, waits

For when you are in sleep

It moves unseen through open doors

From room to room

It hustles to the underbeat

Eight legs, six legs, two eyes, four

How does it look?

How does it fight?

With poison, fang or loaded claw?

Does it work alone?

Did we dust away,

The fragile structure of its home?

Watch it, stare until it hurts

Where does it begin and end?

It’s just a hole, a dark and ever-present blur

A deviant, a shape-shifter

An unknown quantity, a drifter

Know no rest, you’ve seen it now

An unrelenting vigil keep

You must not close your eyes and sleep

Who will wear down who?

In the same room, same world

But on the ceiling, upside down

The insect sees such a different view

 

 

Certificate U
Poem

Comments

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

You're not going to get me neurotic about those little creatures! It's the hum of a mosquito flying around that makes my husband go tracking!
I liked those last 2 lines particularly - thoughts on the view an upside down spider has of my room. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Thanks for your comment Rhiannon. It's the ones you don't see that I worry about.

 

Submitted by celticman on

ah, the ones you don't see, see you in many-eyed view. 

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Thanks celtic, I will invent some glasses to replicate such a view and in turn become rich. I wasn't expecting a cherry - thank you! It was suppose to be a metaphor but I think I overcooked it, pushing it into the realms of a metafive.

 

Submitted by loquaciousicity on

It's the bed bugs I'm worried about...smiley

They're not watching, just lurking...

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Thanks Terry - I know! Cover yourself in tea tree oil, apparently they don't like it.