The Death of an Old Housefly

A small event on the eve of a celebration

Last night I was writing to my friends in far places.
We were celebrating a victory of the Apocalypse invasion.
From the corner of my eye I was aware of a movement,
But I'm used to the flights of our moths in the night.
For some reason I couldn't ignore this presence,
And continued anyway to finish my story.
The next thing I knew there was a large fly on my screen
I thought it wanted to play with my cursor,
So I played cat and mouse for a minute or two
But it seemed to get tired and stood quite still.
A thought occurred to me that the screen was a place
Of magnetic forces and deadly rays.
I thought that was why it was too tired to move
That it couldn't escape from the pull of the screen.
So I moved it away and it flew to the desk
And paused there a moment to catch it's breath.
It flew once again to the monitor screen
And one more time I shooed it away again.
This time it landed to play with my keys,
To help me to write and talk to my friends.
It soon tired of that and went back to the desk
And I continued on my own to finish my piece.
The next thing I new it was on it's back
Moving it's wings rapidly to get right side up.
I was alarmed 'cause I knew that the housefly was sick.
It was not just to play, that it I thought it was saying,
But that it wanted a friend, when it came to it's end.
It was on it's back in the glare of my lamp,
So I placed it softly in the shade of some books.
I finished my letter to the Apocalypse Gang,

"It was their greatest moment of glory,
their greatest celbration of freedom,
the flames amongst a dying society,
a sign to the cosomos
that intelligent life
still survives
on this island in deep space!"

And when I was done I looked at the fly,
It was no longer moving and had probably died.
So I shut down the computer and turned out the light.
I was lying in bed and before going to sleep
The spirit of the fly filled the whole of the room,
I bid it farewell and to the cosmos it returned.
In the morning I got up and took it's remains
And placed it outside under a plant I had there...