Angela Massucco

The Fly

It started on the eve
before
I heard it first
around the door
on the floor

I reached for a fan
woven
to deliver a swipe
swat it down
down

Then closed the door
to contain
the enemy till morn
pursuit would
then ensue

Again I held the
weapon
with intention to destroy
but as I saw it
succumb on the pane

To fatigue
I felt a clutch of
sadness
and instead
gently placed

A small glass
over it
beneath which
I slid
a paper fragment

This tactic
I would normally
reserve
for a saviour
bumble bee

But is this not
a superfly?
It was a new day
so why not
make a gift

Of life
to a black fly
who found itself
alone
with an alien species

Outside I let the fly
tumble onto
cracked terracotta
where it tremulously
found it’s legs

And flew away
to join
the army of digesters
of rot seekers – out
to save our world.

Angela Massucco works as an attachment-based couples and individual psychotherapist in Cambridge. Her background is as a costume designer in theatre and television. She is a member of The Poetry Society Cambridge Stanza and her poems are about relationship and nature.

Thumbnail Image: Henk Wallays / Dreamstime.com