Suburban (Horror)
16th November 2022

Spiders black and menacing,
and scuttling roaches icky of the icky,
animalus horribulus,
too many moving legs and arms and appendages to be considered natural to this world,
they are spied in children’s bedrooms,
and I am sent to meet them with Tupperware, and flimsy cutting mats,
I hold them tightly in their tiny plastic prisons,
and full of adrenaline march them out the front door,
…to be disposed of on the nature strips of neighbours.

Then there are the ringtail possums,
that time they were trouncing the roofs at night,
keeping us up searching with torches, cleverly avoiding the light,
…that turned out to be rats,
with rat’s nests, and rat’s droppings,
and who knows what other filthy rat disease ridden traits …so I am told,
ready to attack at any time, …their crime,
…seeking the warmth around the heating pipe,
dealt with through toxic bait, …they went away to die,
sadly taking our compromised morals and positions on the sanctity of life with them...

No …it seems the possums choose instead to crawl the electrical wires,
stealthily traversing the front yard and keeping well out of reach,
only to come a cropper at the power poles,
7,200 volts they did breach,
their mummified remains hang,
weighing on our consciences,
…not very lightly,
an extended rain softens their grips,
their descents horrifying,
…not very slightly.

Finally, …I am unwillingly consigned to the crawl space under floorboards,
the parallel world of the house no one ever speaks of,
sent to search for the blockage that refuses to let bathroom sinks drain,
darkness, dust, and builders waste,
cobwebs, crawling unknowns, claustrophobia to be faced,
disconnecting a pipe I fish out a monster pipe turd,
hair and mud and who knows what,
a mix of satisfying and revolting, this my sensibilities tell me …is a lot.

Not so civil the white picket dream,
in which our children grow,
guardians of their world,
we find ourselves meeting creatures, confronting fears, acquiring skills,
we hoped we’d never get to know,
repugnantly dealing with the repugnant,
in this,

...suburban horror.

 

Suburban horror.
.