Why? The Fly.

The Fly

God in his wisdom made the fly
And then forgot to tell us why.

~Ogden Nash~


Last night a fly kept bothering me while I was on the computer and I remembered this poem by Ogden Nash. This was one of the first poems I ever learned. I always laugh when I think of it.
As I watched the fly sitting on the book in front of me, It appeared that it might be looking at me too and I remembered a Zen saying written about this small insect....
"Don't kill him!
the fly, it wrings it's hands,
it's feet." ~Issa~

And so..., as I am always in the habit of doing, I looked this creature up in the Insect book. It is a Blue Bottle Fly:Calliphora vomitoria (Oh my!) in the Blow Fly family. It might have been a female because they often enter open houses and buzz loudly when they can't find an exit.

I won't even tell you what they feed on. It would ruin your weekend.There are 8 to 10 generations a year; not exactly an endangered species. They don't live long but tend to reek havoc while alive and they can also transmit diseases.

So, as interesting as it was to have an encounter with this shiny, metallic nervous creature, I will still have a fly swatter handy inside the house. These are not your average "Don't kill them, they're harmless." insect. If it goes from carrion to my dinner table and carries diseases, it's a "persona non grata" in my book.

Still..., I wonder why..., the Fly?

Palm Sunday and Poppies

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed.
Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell:
the soil is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods
with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
~ Gerard Manley Hopkins ~

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
~Robert Frost~

(please click on photos for close up view)

OLD HAIKU

Death is a dogs paw

The small beetle crawls quickly
Across the hot road.

Fragrance blooms below
My window ledge. The rose is
Making love again.


Cat has gone away
No footprint marks his leave and
Sorrow mews at night.

I Remember Long Ago

Had such a great weekend with my sister. We shopped, talked and ate our way through, without any interruptions. My husband was gone . He went to Fresno with friends in his prospector's club. So... sis and I just had a "girlie" weekend. After she left, yesterday, I remembered a poem I wrote and gave her a long time ago. I finally found it this afternoon and decided to post the poem because ,even twenty years later, it still rings true. I was an only child for seven years before my sister was born and I real wanted a sister. I guess my parents thought that it was time for another child to be a part of our family so I wouldn't be the only one. I'm so glad.

Sisterfriend

I remember long ago,
when you were put
into my hands
and life became warmer.

I brought you home,
between mom and dad,
in the old green Pontiac....
and you were mine;
alive and bright eyed,
rubbing your face
with a curled hand.
A brand new
little old person
wrapped up
in all our love.
I remember saying
thank you to them
for this gift;
this two week late
Christmas gift.

You were the finishing touch.
So much has been said
between us since then...
so many differences..., and
so many shared days.
We have grown apart
and back again,
but,I have always
remembered that morning
when I brought you home.
We reached out then,
my only sister friend,
and I will always
see you, in my lap,
looking up at me.
For it was then,
when we were small,
that all the sunrises were new....
and I sang you Christmas carols
all the way home.