Hour Seventeen<\/p>\n
I am convinced
\nflies have genetic memory
\nto the swatter-
\ndashing through the air
\nlanding upon
\nnaked skin crawling
\na constant hum of buzzing
\nafflicting my quiet.<\/p>\n
I pick up the swatter
\nand the nerve-grinding melody ceases.
\nI scan the room and cajole them
\nout from hiding,
\neyes narrowed in annoyance
\nand after a few moments of pause,
\nI set it down and go about my way.<\/p>\n
Preoccupied with my current task,
\nI forget their existence
\nand venture further off into my own world
\nwhen it so happens to flirt about,
\nbouncing like a pinball
\noff surfaces and my being
\nin an angry squabble of
\nbuzzing interfere to the depths of my thought-
\nan annoying static-
\nand disappears.<\/p>\n
I bat them off and shrug them away
\nshooting daggers from my eyes
\nmy features contorted by
\nmy grievance.
\nI pick up the swatter
\nand they disperse-
\nthe army of black flies
\ngoing AWOL in their defense.<\/p>\n
I set it down slowly,
\nmindful of their presence
\nand threat to concentration.
\nOne lands upon the table in front of me
\nzipping along zig-zagged lines
\nteasing me with it’s curious presence.
\nI hold tight the handle and slowly raise
\nholding it aloft like Anne Wilkes
\nas their number one fan
\nand blessed is the silence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hour Seventeen I am convinced flies have genetic memory to the swatter- dashing through the air landing upon naked skin crawling a constant hum of buzzing afflicting my quiet. I pick up the swatter and the nerve-grinding melody ceases. I scan the room and cajole…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1485,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5772,5765,680,193,3019,2158,326,15,228,391,10,355,390,1084],"class_list":["post-140272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","tag-2023fullmarathon","tag-2023poetrymarathon","tag-poetrymarathon","tag-193","tag-24-hour-poetry-marathon","tag-full-marathon","tag-marathon","tag-poem","tag-poems","tag-poet","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-marathon","tag-writer","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1485"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140285,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140272\/revisions\/140285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}