Poem: Call Me Destructor

So, yesterday, when I might or might not have preferred to be watching anime, I mowed the lawn. My lawn hadn’t been mowed in about two weeks, and it had, in the meantime, been watered well by the rains of a tropical storm. It was thick, lush, quite tall, and inhabited by many crickets, spiders, moths, mosquitoes, and some very pretty green bugs with lacy wings.

It was an entire habitat.

Needless to say, in my little urban neighborhood, said habitat had to go. Not to mention that it also probably housed roaches, mice, and other pests that I’d prefer not to encounter when I take my dog out at night.

To alleviate my guilt, I imagined myself as an anime villain, mowing down everything in my path, laughing evilly as the innocent bugs tried to escape. And that got me writing this poem in my head. I originally thought it was a villanelle. Not sure what it ended up as, but I do like the rhyme scheme, and the evil tone that grows more seductive through the poem is a little chilling, even to me.

Call Me Destructor
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Call me Destructor;
watch me lay waste.
I cannot hear your cry,
but you will not escape.

Luxuries can’t make me poor;
destruction is my only taste.
My use of power I justify;
just watch me lay waste.

I feel the rush in my core…
Victims stuck in my mindscape—
watch them flitter and fly!
I laugh as they try to escape.

Never enough, I always want more.
Your dreams I will reshape—
raze it all, the only way to satisfy
this desire I have to rape.

You want what you know is in store;
your desires were never chaste.
I know this you cannot deny.
Are you sure you desire escape?
Photo and poem copyright 2024 Michelle Garren-Flye.