Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Videos
Resources
Syllable Counter
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Quotes
Short Stories
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 3.144.229.52
From Email:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
I never kill a fly because I think that what we have of laws To regulate and civilize Our daily life - we owe to flies. Apropos, I'll tell you of Choo, the spouse Of the head of the hunters, Wung; Such a beautiful cave they had for a house, And a brood of a dozen young. And Wung would start by the dawn's red light On the trailing of bird or beast, And crawl back tired on the brink of night With food for another feast. Then the young would dance in their naked glee, And Choo would fuel the fire; Fur and feather, how good to see, And to gorge to heart's desire! Flesh of rabbit and goose and deer, With fang-like teeth they tore, And laughed with faces a bloody smear, And flung their bones on the floor. But with morning bright the flies would come, Clouding into the cave; You could hardly hear for their noisy hum, They were big and black and brave. Darkling the day with gust of greed They'd swarm in the warm sunrise On the litter of offal and bones to feed - A million or so of flies. Now flies were the wife of Wung's despair; They would sting and buzz and bite, And as her only attire was hair She would itch from morn to night: But as one day she scratched her hide, A thought there came to Choo; "If I were to throw the bones outside, The flies would go there too." That spark in a well-nigh monkey mind, Nay, do not laugh or scorn; For there in the thoughts of Choo you'll find Was the sense of Order born; As she flung the offal far and wide, And the fly-cloud followed fast, Battening on the bones outside The cave was clear at last. And Wung was pleased when he came at night, For the air was clean and sweet, And the cave-kids danced in the gay firelight, And fed on the new-killed meat; But the children Choo would chide and boss, For her cleanly floor was her pride, And even the baby was taught to toss His bite of a bone outside. Then the cave crones came and some admired, But others were envious; And they said: "She swanks, she makes us tired With her complex modern fuss." However, most of the tribe complied, Though tradition dourly dies, And a few Conservatives crossly cried: "We'll keep our bones and our flies." So Reformer Choo was much revered And to all she said: "You see How my hearth is clean and my floor is cleaned, And there ain't no flies on me"... And that was how it all began, Through horror of muck and mess, Even in prehistoric Man, LAW, ORDER and CLEANLINESS'. And that is why I never kill A fly, no matter how obscene; For I believe in God's good will: He gave us vermin to make us clean.
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required