Beasts and demons
 
(i)
The slightest flutter of nerve impulses
registers in my brain
and I look down
to see you standing there
six-leggedly astride the small but weeping wound upon my foot
 
With instinctive disgust
I flick you off
 
But you have a taste now
for my excretions
a palpable hunger too
and even though I cup my hand around my foot
you flit and scuttle about my fingers and toes
like a greedy little monster
who knows neither fear nor shame

(ii)
During the Crimean War
nurses noticed
that the maggots of Calliphora Vomitoria
which hatched within the soldiers’ wounds
would feast upon the dead flesh
and thereby keep them clean

These flies and eggs and maggots became part of their medical arsenal
 
(iii)
If ever you find yourself giving thanks
for the beauty of this world
then give thanks also
for its apparent ugliness
 
For those monsters and beasts and demons
(of all shapes and realms and sizes)
who feast upon our human waste
who carry disease and cure and revulsion
upon their limbs and tongues and backs
 
Who hold our ambivalence
and our disowned darkness
within the gossamer prayers
of their sturdy adult wings