Out of the blue,
most times unseen.
Catches you off guard.
Shocks you.
Buries deep into your skin
with a vise like grip.
First reaction, crush it.
Don’t panic.
Acknowledge it.
Don’t rebuff it.
Accept it, it may be diseased.
With help
grasp firmly at head
pull firmly and steadily
until the tick lets go.
Jim
Playing with Anxiety
8 months ago
Painful. Gone for a poem this week based on the Etheree form created about twenty years ago by an Arkansas poet named Etheree Taylor Armstrong It normally consists of ten lines of unmetered and unrhymed verse, the first line having one syllable, each succeeding line adding a syllable. I added an extra row for the word count and the punch line. See what I mean here.
ReplyDeleteMy vet told me to just let it feed and drop off by itself.....yeah right! Last year was really bad for ticks around here. Always good to have someone around to help you check for them. ;)
ReplyDeleteunless they give you lymes disease, which they did to me 2 years ago...nice 55.
ReplyDeletemine is up!
Yeah, neither trauma nor ticks crush easily. Best to head it off before it gets you, if you can.
ReplyDeleteSound advice--without sound...10 years ago, I saw one tick (big) on the wall, didn't know who it was. I crushed it--blood squirted.
ReplyDeleteWeek later we had (literally) THOUSANDS of them on walls, in beds, everywhere.
Thanks for the reminder in a GREAT "55"!!!
I have also heard you can get close to their blood engorge behind with heat - a match head or cigarette and they remove themselves pretty quickly. I had to have one cut out by a doctor. Ouch. My 55 is HERE.
ReplyDeleteSome Southern traditions you can keep!
ReplyDeleteExcellent 55 Jim.
Thanks for visiting, thanks for playing, and have a Kick Ass Week-End...G
aauugghh! your tick tale reinforces my desire to stay inside all summer long :) ok, as much as your 55 grossed me out, it was still an excellent read!
ReplyDelete