Spring 2014: Rough Draft Poem 5

Assignment: a poem about something I fear.

The One Thing Worse Than Senhor Testiculo, Brazil's Mascot For Testicular Cancer

A three inch long cockroach

Six inches from my face

At 3:37 AM.

I ran out of my room,

Screaming and naked.

No shoes, no wallet, no glasses, no phone.

Couldn't get to a store or pay for Raid

Or see or call for help.

Just me, my laptop, and the contents of a suitcase

I hadn't bothered to unpack after a trip.

I waited until the sunlight reflected

Off of the windows down the street

Into my window before charging into my room armed

With a noisy vacuum cleaner and a frying pan,

Which I used to pummel the mattress

Over and over and over, yelling and laughing

At the thought of what I must look like.