Poem: Call Me Destructor

So, yesterday, when I might or might not have preferred to be watching anime, I mowed the lawn. My lawn hadn’t been mowed in about two weeks, and it had, in the meantime, been watered well by the rains of a tropical storm. It was thick, lush, quite tall, and inhabited by many crickets, spiders, moths, mosquitoes, and some very pretty green bugs with lacy wings.

It was an entire habitat.

Needless to say, in my little urban neighborhood, said habitat had to go. Not to mention that it also probably housed roaches, mice, and other pests that I’d prefer not to encounter when I take my dog out at night.

To alleviate my guilt, I imagined myself as an anime villain, mowing down everything in my path, laughing evilly as the innocent bugs tried to escape. And that got me writing this poem in my head. I originally thought it was a villanelle. Not sure what it ended up as, but I do like the rhyme scheme, and the evil tone that grows more seductive through the poem is a little chilling, even to me.

Call Me Destructor
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Call me Destructor;
watch me lay waste.
I cannot hear your cry,
but you will not escape.

Luxuries can’t make me poor;
destruction is my only taste.
My use of power I justify;
just watch me lay waste.

I feel the rush in my core…
Victims stuck in my mindscape—
watch them flitter and fly!
I laugh as they try to escape.

Never enough, I always want more.
Your dreams I will reshape—
raze it all, the only way to satisfy
this desire I have to rape.

You want what you know is in store;
your desires were never chaste.
I know this you cannot deny.
Are you sure you desire escape?
Photo and poem copyright 2024 Michelle Garren-Flye.

Day 14: Happy National Poetry Month!

Good morning! Today I’m presenting a fresh poem, but it’s actually one I wrote yesterday. I revised a bit this morning. And it’s all about this:

The world is a Monet painting. Photo by Michelle Garren-Flye

That’s what my yard looked like day before yesterday. Gorgeous, right? Absolutely. I love flowers. I especially love wildflowers. But spots of it were well over ankle-deep. I do not like snakes (I mean, I’m okay with them in theory, but since one killed my dog, I haven’t been super fond of having them near my loved ones). I also don’t like rats and mice in the house and keeping your yard cut back is essential to discouraging pest infestations.

And so I cut my yard. As much as it pained me to cut all those beautiful flowers, I did it. Because I’m a grownup, damn it. Sometimes that sucks.

Massacre

By Michelle Garren-Flye

I mowed my lawn yesterday,

painful as it was to cut down buttercups

and crowpoison and violets.

I picked a few to make a bouquet,

but the rest I had to let go,

sacrificed to the mower’s blade.

Tell me please, what else could I do?

Rats love weeds and grass

and don’t care if flowers contribute

to the refuge they require.

In shadows, snakes slither through,

so the overgrowth must go!

And still I knew I would miss

the cheerful heads I decapitated

so I stole a moment to admire

Nature’s beauty I must erase.

A masterpiece of color and scent

nevertheless met its fate.

The bouquet I picked from my backyard.
Photos and poem copyright 2023 Michelle Garren-Flye.