The Deadliest Creature~

It is not, as you may think,
some apex predator like a Great White
Shark or the rainbow-colored Poison Dart
Frog from the South American jungle.
Nor is it the sly and muscular King
Cobra or any one of a considerable
variety of highly venomous spiders.
No, ripe for those whose phobias rage
at the sight of blood, this news:
in its annual issue packed with data,
answers to the random questions we ask
each other at sports bars and work,
Time magazine offers its expert
announcement that of all creatures
great and small, there is, indeed, one
wild thing that tracks us wherever we go
country to continent, river to road,
that slips up on children in their sleep
in its need for what keeps us alive,
whose viciousness has meant the most
lives lost to its ubiquitous bite,
one animal who stands the best chance
of usurping the reign of, we, humans,
who slap and spray and scratch and run:
the lowly and incessant mosquito.

                      Anne McCrady

Newlinks: Time Magazine

Audiolink: SoundCloud

Poet with a Press Pass features original poems written by Anne McCrady in response to news and world events. The series is produced by InSpiritry. More about Anne and InSpiritry is at InSpiritry.com.