Our sweet mothers watched from the porches
as a big truck would sway down our street
bestowing a vapor upon our neighborhood
in a public war against mosquitoes
Was it once a week?
once a summer?
did it happen just once?
Kennedy in the white house
Daley in Bridgeport
...we were not afraid
God it was fun
to run behind the truck
clouding ourselves in and out of eccentric sky
on earth's surface
hiding and seeking in killing magic
Big diesel steam cloud
hazing in billows
gasoline butter mothball gum
Stenching our clothes and skin
lasting
on the grass blades
elm leaves
car hoods
eyes and noses and throats
scarring tattoos into green branches
It was a bitter blue carnage
of lightning bugs
amphibians
birds
With mosquitos rising
from the ground again
steady as the sun
We all wound up going dead bang crazy
taunted by the grace of children
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
The longest battle ever since existence.man vs mosquito