Where Is Thy Sting?

Sweat bee; light, ephemeral, almost fruity,
a tiny spark has singed a single hair
on your arm. Fire ant; sharp, sudden, mildly
alarming, like walking across a shag
carpet and reaching for the light switch.

Bullhorn acacia ant; a rare, piercing,
elevated sort of pain. Someone
has fired a staple into your cheek.

Bald-faced hornet; rich, hearty, slightly crunchy,
getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
Yellowjacket, hot and smoky, almost
irreverent, imagine W. C. Fields
extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.

Honey bee and European hornet;
a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.
Red harvester ant; bold and unrelenting,
somebody is using a drill
to excavate your ingrown toenail.

Paper wasp, caustic and burning. Like
spilling a beaker of hydrochloric
acid on a paper cut. Blinding, fierce,
shockingly electric, a running hair drier
has been dropped into your bubble bath.

Bullet ant; pure, intense, brilliant pain.
Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal
with a three-inch rusty nail in your heel.

From the Wikipedia examples of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index.

The Mundane Mr Eggleston

They show us the grain of the present,
like the cross-section of a tree.

Old tyres, Dr Pepper machines,
discarded air-conditioners,
vending machines, empty and dirty
Coca-Cola bottles, torn posters,
power poles and power wires,
street barricades, one-way signs,
detour signs, No Parking signs,
parking meters and palm trees
crowding the same curb.

A dog trotting toward the camera;
a Moose lodge; a woman
standing by a rural road;
a row of country mailboxes;
a convenience store; the lobby
of a Krystal fast-food restaurant –
all of these ordinary scenes.

From the Wikipedia page for William Eggleston.