Aidancles and the Wasp

Today I saved a wasp's life.

I walked up the steps to the front door of my apartment and found it there, crawling on the inset glass face of the door, trapped inside the building. I knew that if I didn't lend him a hand, he'd spend the rest of the day crawling back and forth, buzzing and batting against the glass, unable to process the fact that an invisible wall was keeping him from the great outdoors, where dead things and spilled soda awaited him. As the day went on he'd get weaker and weaker, crawling ever slower, until even the miniscule grips of his feet could no longer hold him, and he would fall dead to the floor.

So I opened the door and held it for him as he slowly bumped along the glass, finally hitting the edge of the door and flying off. I wished him well, knowing that one day in the future I too would be lost and trapped, cut off from everything I know and slowly ebbing away, and on that day, this wasp would hear my call and come to me.

And he'll sting me, the nasty fucker.

Next wasp I see is dead.

the enemy

[Afternoon. Outside. The air is full of, whaddyacallem, dust motes. And poplar spore and warm slanting beams of sun with wedges of soft shade between. 'S nice. Palinode and Schmutzie are taking a walk to somewhere or other.]

Schmutzie: Have you seen all the cabbage moths flying around today? [It's true. There's a crazy explosion of the little things this summer. You can't walk a block without a dozen or more fluttering by.]

Palinode: Cabbage moths and wasps.

Schmutzie: Flying around.

Palinode: They're at war.

Schmutzie: What? No they're not.

Palinode: Absolutely. You see all the cabbage moths and wasps out, right? They're at war with each other.

Schmutzie: No. That doesn't make any sense.

Palinode: War doesn't make sense, and yet they still fight.

Schmutzie: You can't just say there's a lot of one thing and a lot of another thing and say they're at war with each other. "Oh look, there's a lot of trees and people, they must be at war".

Palinode: Trees can't fight. They just stand there while we attack.

Schmutzie: That's not exactly warfare.

Palinode: All they do is wave their limbs a bit and fall over.

Schmutzie: You suck.

Palinode: Considering how wussy trees are, you'd think we'd have won already.

Schmutzie: All done listening now.

Palinode: I mean, we've got axes and flamethrowers and farmers and everything. And yet our forests are still overrun with the enemy.