fruit flies

how embarrassing
our last visit was for you

the day of my arrival
i was the only house guest
you were expecting

such care you had taken
plugging in electrified air fresheners
and shoving piles of an unwashed life
into closets

steps climbed with heavy baggage
in tow
we opened the door
to find you had other visitors

a thousand minuscule problems
flittering about
you blushed
blaming negligent grocery clerks
at the local atlantic and pacific trading company

forensically damning that
last bunch of bananas
purchased

behold a ballet of fruit flies

i proclaim
them to be my favorite
laboratory specimen
drosophila melanogaster
to lighten the mood

neither of us laughed

my knowing a new generation is reproduced
every 24 hours
i fill with fear
hypothesizing about how long
you’ve been ignoring the obviously failed experiment

painfully aware
the sweet rotten stench
they were clinging to
was not the produce
but your soul