The Aristocratic Cockroach

A dinner invite

Colleen Millsteed
3 min readDec 31, 2022

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Two fully dressed cartoon insects holding a concersation.
Image courtesy of Pixabay

Standing in the cold-room, covered in a large white apron,
Gory splashes of blood soaking in patches,
A plastic face mask shielding my eyes,
Splattered with the offal it thankfully catches.

I butcher the meat from the suckling bones,
Stripping the skeleton naked and lean,
While holding an electric conversation with an aristocratic cockroach,
All about the most delicious cuisine.

I’m trying to hide a smile, a giggle, a great belly laugh,
At the little cockroach standing there in disgust,
Stepping back to keep his tuxedo free from blood and guts,
As his shiny black walking stick slips, breaking through the gore and pus.

His beady black eyes glitter in horror,
One eye monocled to combat his short sightedness,
Prim and proper he rounds his vowels,
As I go about my butchering with single mindedness.

I began sizing up this aristocratic cockroach,
As he was a good size with his beefed up legs and belly of fat,
I remember thinking he could be tonight’s entree,
Watching him…

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Colleen Millsteed

Top Writer in Poetry. I’m a Finance Manager with a love of both numbers and words.