The Appetite Killer

The general alarm was sounded loud by Mother shouting high.

Someone left the door open and let in a bloody fly.

Everyone was expected to grab whatever they could

to chase the fly, to catch the fly and get rid of it for good.

Newspaper, swats, spray cans and tea-towels all after the flying invader.

The uninvited guest buzzed away attempting to land on our dinner.

With the paper firmly cast in a roll Dad made the table shake.

Didn’t get it square on, he said. But I reckon I gave it a headache.

My sister grabbed the can of spray and prepared the thing to douse

but Mother screamed No don’t do that you know it’ll drop its maggots!!!

Just leave the spray can over there, you’ll poison all our meal, Mum said.

And she chased it with the tea-towel, flicking it close to poor Dad’s head.

Hey hey take care with that, he said, as the insect flew away,

but Mum was determined it would be caught. Not to live another day.

She waved the tea towel about in the air, like a fanatic with a flag,

and chased the blowfly around the room. An outsider would‘a thought her quite mad.

It ducked around the waving cloth and headed back to the table,

making a beeline for the aromatic meat and the plate of steaming vegetable.

A dozen hands waved madly about. Six voices in unison

yelled at it to get away before our meal was carrion.

It slipped between the curtain and into the louvered window.

Quickly close the latch, we all heard Mother bellow.

Brother reached and flicked the handle of the louver-closing thing

and all throughout our meal that day we listened to it buzzing.