Carpe Diem #62, Bed Bugs (watamushi)

'
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today a kind of dirty prompt ... Bed Bugs (watamushi) ... in the time of our classical haiku poets a very common insect. Fleas and Lice   were very common than. Watamushi means also Cotton Fly, a little insect that's living on cotton plants and sometimes in cotton clothes. All insects you don't want to deal with I think.

So here it goes ... writing haiku on a bed bug ... hm ... not easy I think, but of course I have to do this.

First I have an example of a modern haiku poet Narayanan (one of the hosts of Wonder Haiku Worlds ):

bed bugs again?
where were they hiding
all these days?

(c) Narayanan

Watamushi (cottonfly)

Matsuo Basho wrote this one on 'bed bugs':

eaten alive by
lice and fleas - now the horse
beside my pillow pees

(c) Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

Or what do you think of this one by Buson, our Special haiku master for this month:

picking off his lice
a beggar's wife
under a plum tree

(c) Yosa Buson (1716-1783)

Bed Bugs huh I don't like them at all, but it's a joy to play the game 'Bed Bugs':

I don't know if I can write a haiku about bed bugs ... well let's go ...

sleepy head
scratching his legs
bitten by bedbugs

Well ... I hope you don't have bedbugs ... but I hope you are inspired by this prompt. Have fun and share your haiku on Carpe Diem.

This prompt will stay on 'till December 6th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our first Carpe Diem Special later on today around 10.00 PM (CET).

This is the haiku by Buson which I will use for this first Carpe Diem Special:

mandarin duck -
rain falls silently
from an oak

(tr. Chèvrefeuille)