The Florida of My Youth - Mosquitoes

The Florida of My Youth – Mosquitoes By Franklin Price 10/14/2019 The mosquitoes were horrendous, they would blacken out the sky Early in the mornings, the mosquito plane would fly Coming in above the treetops, he would trigger out the spray Falling heavily on everything, to make them go away The falling spray slowed them bit, but many left to bite Providing fun, for kids to run, a truck came by at night It sprayed a fog that filled the air, we ran blind in its wake Could see the tail lights, through the mist, more fun than we could take Never thought,would do us harm, was filled with DDT Was found could do us damage, my foggy running friends and me. I'm still here to write this, though I've got a foggy head Still can say, I recall that spray, and most mosquitoes now are dead But in those days, with all those sprays, the mosquitoes won the bout We lotioned up, or wore long sleeves, whenever we went out Didn't make much difference, we would slap them when they lit If lucky, we would kill them, before they sucked our blood a bit We had no air conditioning, our house was open wide Doors and windows all were meshed, gave us a place to hide The sultry days of summer made those little buggers mean They sent their scouts to find a chink, in the metal of our screen When we went to bed at night, and when the house was dark We dicovered just how safe we were, when the big ones came to park I swear I heard them talking, was in English, and quite clear “Should we take him to swamp, or should we eat him here?”