September
and garden work returns.
Gone the long hot days 
yet still with naked limbs
revealed, busy diggers
mowers and sowers
relish cooler air

Barely felt
skin-dipping skeeters
come plundering blood
for eggs

drop them pondside
beneath fading flag and lily 
in their hundreds

31 thoughts on “blood donors”

1. I thought the season for those mosquitoes was over… but maybe as long as there is fresh blood there is going to be those blood-suckers ready.

   1. they are still at work!

2. Laura, I went on a group bike ride yesterday and was delighted for the cool breeze on my bare arms and legs. Thankful for the wind as it’s tough for those little buggers to land then. Thanks for showing me another way to think about fall skeeters. I’m sure lots of those eggs are fattening up the pond critters who are getting ready to hibernate or whatever they do to survive a foodless winter. Nice touch on “beneath fading flag and lily.”

   1. thanks Lisa – wanted something to underscore the time of year

      1. You’re welcome.

3. Oh I love the coolness of summer waning. But those mosquitos breeding….ugh!

4. Nice one
   Happy Monday

   Much💛love

   1. thanks Gillena

5. Insects, especially mosquitos, are the dark side of Nature’s paradise. Either God has a sense of humor, or he screwed the pooch with blood suckers,

6. Love where you went with this Laura 🙂 — but I hates dem skeeters… 😕

   1. thanks Rob – glad you felt it worked!

7. Oh yes, the little vampires are still out! I found that out the past two days. But that’s beside the point, because your poem manages to capture nature both as we like it and how it is. I like it very much.

   –Shay

   1. appreciate your comment Shay – even mosquitos have to work!

8. A beautiful Fall Quadrille. I am looking for some of that coolness to arrive here. I love the way you played with the mosquitoes!

   1. thanks Dwight for the seasonal appreciation

      1. You are welcome, Laura.

9. The juxtaposition of the speaker’s work and the skeeter’s mass production. It makes you wonder about the work… Well done.

   1. thank you for for seeing the link

10. I can relate to the ending. Little buggars! 😧

11. Ah yes. Summer comes with a sting.

12. Oh Laura, this is so familiar! I am covered in gnat bites, and they won’t heal. Nasty creatures hide in our bedroom and attack me at night!

13. I liked the tone of this, and the clever title. July and August were unusually dry for us this year, so the gnats and mosquitos were not around so much. We’re finally getting rain today, so their return will be the downside. Our yard is usually so buggy that I don’t go in it much.

    1. glad you like the title Merrill – took me a while to find one!

       1. Sometimes finding the right title is the most difficult part!

14. A lovely, witty piece. I enjoyed it.

    1. just as intended – thank you!

15. Those darn skeeters are everywhere!! I never look forward to September’s work. I love looking behind at it.

16. Love the title. I don’t wish to donate to these rascals.

    1. the title sums up or involuntary donations Ali 😉

17. Here the mosquitoes are in full force in September. We are the hapless blood donors! I’d never thought one could write so poetically about blood suckers! Fabulous write.

    1. thank you – did not find this an easy word to inspire the Muse so found a subject that’s topical!

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