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| Image / MEUM MARE |
Collateral Damage: UV Zappers
My Dunga indoor bug zapper
sat like a blue moorish tower
it onion-shaped dome adorned
with a pointed spire where led
spines flashed FLUO lights
tip to base in irregular intervals.
Glowing UV ray-like catnip to kittens
lure irksome creepy-crawlers and
ravenous, aggravating, winged bugs
The insect monolith served as
landing pad, offered recreational
opportunities for flies, mosquitoes, gnats
moths that traversed its horseshoe archways
followed inviting, enticing flickers inside
put to rest forever in a zip-zap crematorium.
From terse spitter-spatters
longer lightening zaps sizzle,
hiss, pop, and burst brightly
October sent Union, Washington, ice and snow
blanketed October walkways, gardens, and homes
sending ladybugs indoors seeking warmth for
hibernation; speckled ladybirds snuggled half-way
under ceiling molding in a line a foot long, dreaming
about spider mites, aphids, and nectar consumption.
Used to underleaf cohabitation
the crimson creatures grasp onto
stucco and wood for protection.
Some navigated below, hypnotized by Dunga’s
bright essence, forcing their way into the tower’s
ribcage of illuminance, only to feel electricity
briefly zapping feet, clinging to outer shells,
buzzing convulsively for three to five minutes
forcing me daily to empty trays of fried ectoplasms.
I marvel at glowing efficiency
bow my head, grieve at waste lady beetles never annoyed me.
© Sterling Warner
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| Sterling Warner Washington-based author, poet, and educator Sterling Warner is published in such magazines, journals, and anthologies as Verse-Virtual, Ekphrastic Review. Warner’s poetry/fiction includes Rags and Feathers, Without Wheels, ShadowCat, Edges, Memento Mori, Serpent’s Tooth, Flytraps: Poems, Cracks of Light: Pandemic Poetry & Fiction, Halcyon Days: Collected Fibonacci, Abraxas: Poems, Gunilla’s Garden: Poems (2025), and Masques: Flash Fiction & Short Stories. He currently writes, hosts “virtual” poetry/fiction readings, and enjoys fishing along the Hood Canal. |
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