4.2.17

What follows is a list in chronological order of all the death I witnessed today:

Mosquito; inside my home, swatted to bits with pajama bottoms rolled into a makeshift whip.

Baby mouse; no larger than a quarter, abandoned, found trembling in the garden, being consumed alive by a horde of ants.

Gopher; drowned out of its hole by a garden hose, shot twice in the flank with pump-action pellet gun, found on the lawn, innards exposed.

Crane flies; diving recklessly into the fire, incinerated instantly, except for those who get caught on the fringes, cooking slowly, littering the outer rim with crisp corpses.

Snail; appeared after dark, stepped on accidentally with a sound like biting through a potato chip– a puddle of goop.

Mosquito; just now, while writing this, smashed with yellow notepad, sound like a handclap.

Written at 12:26 in the morning, in my office, in Agoura Hills CA, after questioning the amount of death human beings doll out on a daily basis. We are creatures of destruction.