Walking Hazard

I have a hard time deciding what bothers me most when I walk country roads. Right now I swear it's the bitter cold, but come summer it would be those irritating flies.

Walking Hazard

#*!% flies wait to swarm any

mammal breeching their airspace.

Undaunted and doused with odious

repellent, I slap my way along.

A ribbit, sounding like an out-of-tune

guitar, betrays a bullfrog slavering

at the prospect of insects diverted

form my slipstream to his tongue.

And if I attached ribbons of flypaper

to the brim of my hat,

would my nose be the first and only

thing caught?

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor