Murder Past Midnight

That cricket was unreasonable
I gave him every way out

I said “Look here—
you have messed up my sleep
for the past month

chirping under my bed
the second the light goes out
calling for your lady friend

Just vacate my apartment
go out the way you came in
(which is a mystery to me)
and I will forget your offense”

But he ignored me
and last night my heart was dark
even without a belligerent cricket
under my bed—
too many loves are going “there”

At 2 a.m. I got up with murder
in my heart
took a long-handled mop
and killed that scogger
after a twenty-minute fight

Notes

McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.