Buzzing...humming...circling...hovering... winged artistry, expert hit-and-run flank assaults at creatures far up the food chain; mosquitoes and other blood-suckers plot thefts from the life store coursing through mammmalian veins, purloined presents for their progeny. Tenacious tick dangling (a toddler's earring) victim of Daddy's tweazers. When you suck blood for a living you run some risks: squadrons of stiff-winged swifts feasting on swarms of recent hatchlings, at dusk passing the mantle to the nighthawks; vacuous-mouthed goatsuckers scooping the quick-winged insects from starless city skies Even the magic-makers -- poets, singers, storytellers, top of the food chain, victor's in survival struggles, enemies of blood suckers everywhere -- respond with thunderous claps, felling the blood thieves in mid-air, non-combat maneuvers. Stealing life from the life-stealers to show that stealing life is wrong! Preemptive bites for the biters, an eye for an eye. Swatting the annoying little blood suckers blithely distracts the rebels from the struggle against the blood bathers: Ambulance-chasing lawyers and their insurance cronies keeping them in business; Fire-proof flag wrapped patriots watering foreign lands with youthful blood; Pestilent vigilant chemical sprayed golfers and their adult games on poisoned grass prohibiting child's play. Tax sheltered tobacco execs puffing profits from farmer and addict alike. Funeral directors directing survivors' nesteggs six feet under. BLOOD-SUCKERS ALL !! A call -- Rebels, wearing your hearts on your sleeves and your politics on your bumpers, Roll up your sleeves, lay open a vein, donate a pint! Spite the blood-suckers, Don't let them steal your life, Lay it down for a friend!

Copyright � 1996 Ian Lynch. All rights reserved