Pissing in an Empty Forest

When pissing in the forest at this time of the year,
in Sweden,
you expose yourself to mosquitos.
They’re not friendly and they’re out for blood.
I was on guard,
my free hand swat-ready.

No mosquitos!
What’s going on here?
Where are all the mosquitos?
Wait a minute…
No insects!
NO INSECTS
in the forest in early August.
How is this possible?

I’ve now realized that there
are almost no insects anywhere.
Not mosquitos, flies, bees, wasps
or any of those other small things
that are ususally everywhere
at this time of the year.
Note that I said, ”almost no.”
When I discovered a fly in the house
I couldn’t figure out how to make it feel welcome,
give it some support, prepare a meal
or find a mate for it.
I did hide the fly swatter.
It disappered on its own
never once trying to irritate me.
Outside
a single wasp flew into a glass
to feast on the remains of a smoothy.
Eat! Eat! I cried.
Is there anything else I can get you?
One fly, one wasp,
a few flying specs here and there,
not a single mosquito…

When the canary dies in the mine
everyone abandons the mine.
When the insects die on the earth
we can’t abandon the earth
we can, however,
abandon existence,
but not before we click a Like
on the picture of a celebrity
or a cute cat
or the image taken
with a technologically advanced microscope
of a tear on a mosquito.

*

”You probably don’t have to worry about the future
because there probably won’t be one.”
Dartwill Aquila

*

The West Bank is now the Judea-Samaria area.