The Sand-Fly

By James Stanley Gilbert

OH, Lord! Oh, Nature! Oh, whatever be

  The power properly addressed,

I pray thee humbly-pray on bended knee—

  Grant this one plea, deny the rest!

`Tis little that I ask from out the store

  Of blessings in thy right to give;

And surely thou dost daily waste much more

  On folks less fit than I to live!

I crave but this: That from the different kinds

  Of insects cursing night and day—

(The entomologist claims that he finds

  Five hundred thousand, so they say)—

Thou wilt at once destroy, annihilate,

  Permit no longer to exist—

Efface, cut off, rub out, obliterate

  The pesky sand-fly from the list!