Flies in the Attic   2014-30

Living in Johnstown, PA at our house on Beckley  Ave., in the attic, were two windows on either side of the peak of the house. As a kid, so long ago, I HATED to go up there in the summer time, due to the flies that buzzed around the windows. They never got down to the bedrooms or any living area, but were there in the attic. I always wondered, then and still now, how the  heck did they get there, what did they eat to live on, and grow up to be adult flies.

 

Christmas ornaments and Halloween masks,

Mothballs in the corner from last winter’s storage

Dust in the air, unsettled by footsteps, a sneeze

Disturbing the soundless darkened room

 

Rafters with knob and tube ceramics,

Guiding an AC charge to down below.

A window stained, grime from the years,

Cobwebs clustered here and there.

 

Heaped in a pile below filtered light – bodies

Of winged, black buzzers, quiet now.

How born, how fed, whence did they come?

To die trying for freedom?

DDB