The Creepy Crawlies

Inspired by Jamal Sutherland. Animation by Haley Monson

Cops hide behind
the bushes of busy highways
like cockroaches
planting themselves
in the shadow pathways
of your home.

Danger has an ego.

It disguises itself
in comfort,
shifts restlessly in the folds,
and waits for acknowledgement.

Lights on.

Antennas up.

Instantly, you realize
you don’t have the privilege
of not being fearful.

Immediately,
you sit up straight
and your palms
start sweating.

Clutching the
now slip-stained handle
of a steering wheel
as you try to remember
how much weight
your foot can hold,

how many times
you’ve slammed
your shoes to the floor,

how easy it is
to confront death.

Instead of you
killing the bug,
the bug kills you.

And all of this murder
reminds you
of when you were young
and the Bible told you
“thou shall not kill.”

Thou shall not kill,
I guess,
unless it is a mosquito
on your baby’s forehead:

The flight of thin wings
resting after
a wind-weary
search for flesh.

In that moment,
you become executioner:
A quick palm smack
brings oblivion, or bardo,
but no blood guilt
or mercy.

Just death.

Thou shall not kill,
I guess,
unless it is that cockroach –
the bug laureate –
its slick brown skin
soon to stain
clean wall paint.

The larger the body,
the more brutal the murder.

Be it a sneaker
or poison
shot straight into the eyes.

No blood guilt
or mercy.

Just death.

And thou shall not kill,
I guess,
unless you are a policeman
and the slick brown skin
that scares you
belongs to a Black body,
still breathing
before you become slayer.

No blood guilt
or mercy.

Just death.