True story from Christmas 2019
Joy Snihur Wyatt Laking
Last evening I went up stairs to go to bed.
When I went into the bath room
There was a bug on the yellow tile counter.
I don’t recall ever seeing a bug in the bath before.
This bug had long horns and very long skinny front legs.
It’s shield shaped flat back was a mottled gray/brown.
It had big beetle-like back legs.
What to do?
I needed time to think.
I put a cup over the bug.
Do I just toss him in the toilet
To die a miserable death of drowning?
Do I squash him with tissue and pop him in the garbage
Never to be thought of again?
Do I put a paper over the cup
And go back down stairs and let him go outside?
It’s cold, it’s winter,
It’s Christmas Eve for goodness sake.
He might freeze to death.
I lift the cup off the bug
And he has crawled up inside.
I shake the cup and the bug rolls on his back.
All his little legs madly flail as he fights to roll over.
I nudge him back out of the cup onto the counter
Right side up.
I think about the life of this bug.
What does he eat?
Does he have a family?
His life is not like mine
But he too is a visitor on earth.
I watch while my bug
Walks towards Jim’s shaving kit.
Then I turn off the light
And go to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment