Mosquito Fog Poem by Jimi Doyle

Our sweet mothers watched from the porches
as a big truck would sway down our street
bestowing a vapor upon our neighborhood
in a public war against mosquitoes

Was it once a week?
once a summer?
did it happen just once?

Kennedy in the white house
Daley in Bridgeport
...we were not afraid

God it was fun
to run behind the truck
clouding ourselves in and out of eccentric sky
on earth's surface
hiding and seeking in killing magic

Big diesel steam cloud
hazing in billows
gasoline butter mothball gum

Stenching our clothes and skin
lasting
on the grass blades
elm leaves
car hoods
eyes and noses and throats
scarring tattoos into green branches

It was a bitter blue carnage
of lightning bugs
amphibians
birds

With mosquitos rising
from the ground again
steady as the sun

We all wound up going dead bang crazy
taunted by the grace of children