A Bug In My Ear Poem by Patrick L Kalahar

About one month ago a bug
Slithered into my ear and vanished
I know
Because I saw it first on my pillow
Long, thin
Body segmented like Japanese armor
Tail forked and barbed
Mandibles hooked and jagged
Like ancient battleaxes
Eyes that spoke hunger

How could I know such detail
From a single moment
It was the shock of recognition—
I'd met the creature before
Perhaps in a dream, or
In the depths of a Hollow Earth
Riddled with decay and corruption
Or on a distant planet
Orbiting another sun
It had even spoken to me
In rasping sighs of metal dragged on stone
That needed no translation

I tried everything to dislodge it
Water, castor oil, hot wax and
Long, probing needles
I shook my head and
Banged it sideways against plastered walls
I shouted threats and
Desperate imprecations and
Even confused bits of prayer

People tell me I only imagine
That a bug crawled in my ear, but
I know it is there
I can hear and feel it eating my brain
It grows fat on my memories
And excretes tiny, leaden pellets
That roll like ball-bearings
Down deserted halls
When I move my head

So now I sit
Still as a statue
And think only
Broken thoughts of stone