the end
of the world and we know it
(with
all respect to don marquis, archy and mehitabel)
my
mother wanted to name me archy
but
grandmamma, the matriarch, refused.
she
would not allow one of her brood
to
be named after the god of all cockroaches.
she
believed such a roach had existed
friend
with cat, confidant of man.
she
also believed that if she watched
the
apocalyptic can of bug spray,
she
would live forever.
a
shame she forgot to watch the shoe as well.
i
am a roach of the new age.
i'm
educated, and live in a laboratory
the
humans think they study my friends and me.
we
amuse ourselves doing arcane tricks for them,
and
holding wakes when they take away our comrades.
but
at night, the place is ours.
science
laboratories are a wealth of information.
in
the old days, roaches were content
to
scramble through walls and eat what they wanted.
we
have more sophisticated pastimes
but
I don't think we eat as well.
and
what if the roaches had been studied
by
lit professors rather than the scientists?
things
could have been different.
i
might have enjoyed a well-turned metaphor
or
learned the esoteric secrets of gertrude stein.
but
i have lived with scientists.
it
has given me a new outlook on life
from
them i have learned
the
one thing that changed my world
(and
is about to change yours)
i
know that roaches can survive anything.
well,
except for the well-placed shoe
or
the cursed bug spray.
it's
time we did away with genocidal humans
who
have destroyed so many insect brethren.
it's
time for a new beginning.
we
are taking over.
we have lived with scientists
we
have the computer codes,
we
know the secret places.
we've
divined atomic energy,
and
the mystical ways of norad.
so
i'm writing this to say farewell
you
see, there are a few bugs in the system.
Find
more of the Forward Motion Flash Friday Group here: http://www.fmwriters.com/flash.html
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