This afternoon I was sitting in the backyard
out by the clothesline where I’d just hung the wash
The sky was without clouds and there was sunlight
coming through the leaves and branches of the fig tree
making constantly shifting shapes and shadows
on the sheets and pillowcases and towels
as they billowed and bloomed in the warm, lively breeze
As I sat, a boxelder bug landed
on the index finger of my right hand
There are boxelder bugs everywhere around here
at this time of year.
They are plain little insects about a half-inch long,
black, with flat, elongated bodies and thin orange lines
on the thorax and wings
I held my finger up close to my face
and the boxelder bug and I regarded each other
for a few moments before it flew off into the garden
Of course it reminded me of when we were children
and we used to find lady bugs on leaves or blades of grass
and coax them onto our fingers
then say “Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home,
Your house is on fire and your children will burn”
And I thought of the places all over the world
where children are on fire,
where they are collateral damage, mutilated, torn into pieces
where they are bathed in white phosphorous and napalm in Fallujah
where they are cracked open and spilling out into the dirt in Karbala
where they are crushed under their own houses in Palestine
by invading bulldozers
or shredded to ribbons by Apache helicopter gunships
or shot between the eyes by snipers
where they are machine-gunned in Somalia
and hacked to bits in the Congo
where their hands and feet are ripped off by cluster bombs
in Lebanon and the Balkans
where in all the peripheral places
they are lacerated and mangled and disfigured
by the infernal engines of the One True and Holy Empire
where their bodies are stunted and their hearts are shriveled
and their hopes are strangled
where their destinies are inscribed in their flesh
with a thousand needles
by the harrowing apparatus of the Great God Capital
Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home
Carry your children out of their burning houses
and spread your wings wide to keep them from harm
Shield them from the bullets and the bombs
Keep them safe from missiles and landmines
Turn helicopters into dragonflies
Turn tanks and bulldozers into dung beetles
Turn machine guns into cicadas
Turn generals and admirals
and war profiteers and captains of industry into crickets
Beat the World Bank into ploughshares
and the IMF into pruning hooks
Turn money into packets of seeds
and stock markets into community gardens
Turn corporations into bluegrass bands
into public spaces and tap dance academies and choirs
Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home
Your house is on fire
and time is running out