Death by Bug


I thought my boyfriend was choking to death
I thought his throat was closing in.
He gasped, stopping short mid stride
Halfway between home and the library.
He hacked and spit and gagged, bent at the waist
And still his face turned redder.
I was afraid and patted his back,
Slightly bewildered and
shoulders tensing.
Uncertain of the cause of such purple cheeks,
I saw no evidence for his sudden distress,
Only unexpected asphyxiation.
The culprit was too quick,
Apparently. Or maybe not.
It was a pleasant sort of day and
Thankfully we were merely deterred
in the fresh air,
Not stuck in the parking garage
That bat-shit cave of a place
But my poor boyfriend, nearly retching
Chest heaving thickly and quickly
Could not free himself of his assailant.
An hour before a poetry reading,
His voice was made hoarse
by an invisible corpse
Because a bug flew into his mouth
and died there.
But not like my boyfriend.
He did not die at all.