Pestilence

The Victim

"They have four blondes and two brunettes,"

Said one louse to another.

"You'll place forty nits on one,

And I'll plant one on their mother."

They schemed and plotted, and then they trotted

To the Matthews' house next morn.

And this is how the pestilence

Of Sunday past was born.

Then creepy, crawly (by gosh, by golly),

The lice infested the head of Raleigh!

She stood before the lengthy mirror

As Mom combed through her hair.

"You have a bug upon your head.

Oh no! There's more, I swear!"

One, two, three, and four.

Not one less, and not one more.

Then off to the CVS Pharmacy,

Dionne's shining prince did trod.

To break the Sabbath with pesticide

For hair. (It's rather odd.)

Scrub and suds. Investigate

The Hair for further nits.

(Without a magnifying glass

We were quite beyond our wits.)

From half past two 'til half past six

Under light of lamp,

Dallas picked through Raleigh's hair.

Oh, isn't he a champ??

Each girl with long blonde hair (plus Dal)

Was subsequently checked.

ONE nit was found in mother's hair,

Oh, what-the . . . ? What-the-heck?

"That was a 'louse-y' day," we said,

To the lifeless, dirty lice.

What a way to spend our day!

(But the family time was nice.)

The letter going 'round third grade

To warn us of the chance

Of catching a school-wide pestilence

Received no second glance.

But when we saw the indication

In poor Miss Raleigh's hair,

The recollection of the letter

Did make us stop and stare.

"Could they really come invade our space?"

We ponder each new day.

Just clean and clean and fumigate

And hope they'll stay away!