(see National Geographic excerpts below for inspiration.)

Once I gave thanks for how full
my life was because of you. But,
like a poison leaking inside me,
your careful emission of words
 
            If you need anything…
            We love you, you know…

secreted something sinister.
I swallowed whole the proclamations
of promised presence, although
their taste was slightly off, bitter
after a shot of saccharine.

Unacquainted with that vast need
growing in your own belly, you fed
greedily on my willing acceptance
of your egocentric craving, cloaked,
of course, as compassion.
So when you said,

            You’re doing the right thing…,

it was an infusion in deadly dose
of bullshit barely disguised that caused me
to hurl my self, body, heart and mind,
into waters teeming with larvae lies.
The day I died, you multiplied.

**** Excerpts from National Geographic:

"Scientists say hairworms, which live inside grasshoppers, pump the insects with a cocktail of chemicals that makes them commit suicide by leaping into water. The parasites then swim away from their drowning hosts to continue their life cycle. 

… "Postmortems of the grasshoppers suggest that worms triggered the insects' death leaps by sabotaging their central nervous systems.

…"Adult hairworms breed in water, where they form writhing masses. It's still not clear how their young get into grasshoppers, though Biron says it may happen when the insects drink larvae-infested water.

…"When the hairworm is full-grown "it occupies most of the host's cavity, with the exception of the head and the legs," he said. "Worms are only ready to emerge once they reach this stage."

..."The team found that hairworms release proteins that influence grasshoppers' central nervous systems, thereby affecting chemical signals to the insects' brains.

...."Some of these proteins secreted by the worm [mimic] proteins produced by the grasshopper," Biron added.

This biochemical tampering appears to drive the grasshopper to water just when the hairworm is ready to reproduce. ###