04-15-2023, 08:45 PM
I must confess, whenever I refrain
to touch even a fragment of wing from this creature,
although I say it is mere disgust,
my very soul trembles greatly in fear
of this most humble survivor among
all creeping things -- the cockroach! -- not least
when it in scrambled flight should not
discriminate between potential landings.
Worse than death is its tickling touch
for by such virtues, smallness and drive,
there is no reason to trample it out:
indeed, why not take it for the Image of Life
that it is, except by such strange quirks,
such emphemera of history, as fear?
to touch even a fragment of wing from this creature,
although I say it is mere disgust,
my very soul trembles greatly in fear
of this most humble survivor among
all creeping things -- the cockroach! -- not least
when it in scrambled flight should not
discriminate between potential landings.
Worse than death is its tickling touch
for by such virtues, smallness and drive,
there is no reason to trample it out:
indeed, why not take it for the Image of Life
that it is, except by such strange quirks,
such emphemera of history, as fear?