Scorpions

He was the biggest,
Blackest scorpion
I ever saw,
And I was lucky
I saw him at all,
Hidden as he was
In a dark corner
Of my bathroom
There in Yala,
Southern Thailand.
His body was at least
Seven inches long,
And he stretched out
To over a foot long
With tail included.
He was what is known
As the elephant scorpion,
But by the time
My co-workers there at
The Community
Development Center
Got done torturing him,
I was rooting for it
To get one of them,
And believe me,
It was trying valiantly.
I am told it is
The smaller scorpions
Which are the most venomous,
But I never what to
Conduct a test
To find out for sure.
I first encountered them
In 1959 on my first trip
To the big island of Hawaii.
They seemed to have
An affinity for my aunt’s house,
And I was always afraid
To walk barefooted
For fear of stepping on one,
Or to carry in fire wood
For fear of grabbing one
By mistake.
Every time the fire was lit,
I would always see one or two
Trying to escape.
As a young boy in Las Vegas,
Scorpions were everywhere.
I don’t know what it is like today
With most of the areas
I scavenged and scoured
Now housed over,
But back in the early sixties,
One or two could be found
Under every stray
Piece of cardboard.
I used to capture some of them
In a glass jar
With a lizard just to watch
The lizard eat them.
Their sting didn’t seem to bother
The lizards at all,
And the lizards acted like
They were a tasty treat.
I have never been stung by one,
And hope to keep it that way.