Apologia Brachycera: Scavenger Plagiarist

Today I note my commonality with flies –

a multitude.

Moments of morality
{mortality} defined
by hunger:
{moribund}
whether one
or a swarm:

Legion –
not indeterminate:
identical
{undifferentiated} –

this generation
or the next –
alive
or trapped in amber –

fruitful {and
multiplying}.

All the same,
{always the same}
: same hum,
same wings, same
multifarious,
multifaceted eyes –

Ditto:
Ba‘al Zebûb
Lord of the High Place
Lord of the Flies
{Diptera}

Oh God, yes, I know:
you want the easy image –
garbage heaps and alleys,
another half-comsumed cadaver.

Noisome contexts,
constant nuisances –
my buzzing in your ears,
manure and malaria.

Now is not your turn.

Have you not noticed
the color of my wings?
Spilt gasoline, hot asphalt,
the stuff of nebulae
keeps me buoyant
{if not celestial}.

Musca domestica:
I am {I was
the closest you ever had
to a guardian angel}.

[I walk on vertical planes,
upside-down,
only take in liquid foods.
I have fast evasion-reactions
to ensure my survival.

In 2008
it was discovered
that I anticipate
the approach of threats,
calculate the angle of attack,
alter my stance – ready to make
the most appropriate getaway.

This evasive action,
which allows me to jump
in the opposite direction,
takes place
within 200 milliseconds.]

But the most impressive
of my adaptions
is my scavenger
-plagiarism:

I survive,
thrive,
love,
fuck,
rut,
eat,
dream,
spawn,
shit,
live,
live,
live,
live
on what you
throw away.

My resources
are unlike your own:
yours are expended –
mine are unleashed.

09/29/2009

Author's Note: All due apologies to those who loved Musca domestica before I even knew its name.

Posted on 09/29/2009
Copyright © 2024 Richard Paez