Rocky Mountain Ticks

Roaming around –

On top of my head.

(Now that’s alarming!)

My wife won’t stop 

Long enough to touch them.

(She thinks ticks are

Disgusting.)

Listen, mister,

I’m not touching ticks

(Without surgical gloves,

A mask, and tweezers).

Just find them!

How tough is it to spot a tick?

(Especially when I feel them

Twitching around up there.)

Hold still, there’s nothing in your hair –

No ticks, no fleas, no lice – just dead skin

(and tiny droppings

From something else!).

Then, dear, look in my ears!

I know they’re there.

(Distorting what I hear!

Hundreds of them.)

You’re feverish or

You’ve lost your mind instead.

(From what I can see…

You must be crazy!)

Then what’s going on?  Hey–

Why can’t you see them?

This is all very fishy… (–Say!

Why’s my bottom so itchy?)

****

Categories: Poetry, Selection: 2010 - 2015