Chigger Bite

The Chigger Blues

by Jerry Schleicher


I ain't a'feered of snakes ner spiders, and ticks don't make me twitch.
I kin roll around nekked in a poison ivy patch and never even itch.
I ain't skeered much of lions ner tigers, or other carnivores much bigger.
The only critter that gives me the chills ... is the cold-hearted chigger.

They ain't no bigger than a dot. Most folks have never seen one.
You don't even know they bit ya', till they've already et' and gone.
And drilled yer skin with a bitin' end that's part needle and part digger.
Pound fer pound, the baddest bug around ... has got to be the chigger.

(read the whole poem here -- scroll down to the third poem)

I hacked down a monstrous pile of weeds in our school's land lab on Wednesday. For my trouble, I got a single chigger bite on the back of my right leg, right at the top edge of my sock. What's the big deal with a single chigger bite, you ask? Well, if you have to ask, you've never had any. If you have had chiggers, you know I'm going nearly mad with the itching. Thank goodness I only got one. Pass the calamine lotion, please.

Jone has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Check it Out.