print previewback STEVE SCAFIDI
The Junebugs
Hey boy come here—quick,
so he dropped his rake and
ran to the yard by the house
where probably five hundred
junebugs like a pile of emeralds
and rubies glistened crawling
over each other under each other
in the grass. By god look at them
fornicating, he said and his son
said Hold on, I got an idea, and ran
to the house for the bundle of
twine and gunpowder he had tied
together into a bomb for such
a purpose and blew an equally
glittering hole into the yard
a foot into the earth and the punch
his father landed reverberated
in his skull for the rest of his life
and when the assassin fired
it was the last thing he saw—
junebugs everywhere crawling
glistening in the tall summer grass.
Note: Charles King, in his Reminiscences and Recollections, reports an epidemic of junebugs in Indiana during the summer of 1823. The Kings lived nearby, and Charles worked on the Lincoln farm as a boy. Charles King became an inventor and is responsible for the hog blade, the rooster comb (both tools for slaughter), the radio cylinder, and the bristle toothbrush.