a mad swarm of love bugs,
until now
unsure of my status
as a superhero
—Simply Haiku, Winter 2009
And there were masses of them, in the thousands, that summer during construction. Inside, they mostly were dead—heaped throughout the future living and dining rooms, in the AC floor registers, filling (and nearly discoloring) the brand-new tub. But outside they swarmed for weeks. It wasn't long before I stopped bothering to shield myself from them as I walked up the steps, bare-armed and bare-legged, to the side entrance of the house.
I had no idea then that those little bugs were harbingers of things to come over the next three or so years.