- Edwin M. Everham III
Novel Ecosystem
Some people would say it’s OK
to let the dogs
kill the lizards,
they are exotic.
As if anything was native
in my fenced, turf-grass
screened-lanai backyard.
If the dogs don’t eat
the lizards,
the lizards eat
all the spiders;
The beautiful, spiny-orb weavers
I brought from the mangroves,
to eat the flies and mosquitoes.
We put up a screen, to keep them out;
but we have a door
to the larger backyard,
and the bugs get in.
The flies are here because of the dog poop,
the mosquitoes because
of the rain.
Flies and mosquitoes feed
the birds;
rain and fly maggots feed
the flowers.
I am sitting in the lanai
to smell the flowers
and hear the birds.
Maybe I need more dogs, or
more spiders,
or no door,
or maybe no screen?
Do I need to learn to live with flies and mosquitoes,
to hear the flowers,
and smell the birds?