Female Andrena haemorrhoa on a dandelion flower :)

A tingling within— an itch I cannot tear into. What is happening to me?

A spiderweb, like a great passage, cascades across my skin from a higher place. I feel the tingly lingering of moss-dwelling insects crawling to and fro along my legs.

I hear the popping of a roach within my ears, the pitter-patter of an ant upon my arm. My body is not my own, but a refuge for many warring things.

I am the world, slipping in and out of awareness. Soon, there will be nothing left of me but the echo and imprint of a crude, waning dream.

Let them live on. Let them war. I will become the field, the mountains, the cliff, the canyon— and one day, a city.

The majority of cockroaches live in the wild and you would not even know they aren't beetles or a different kind of insect. Even greenhouse cockroaches avoid humans and are only invasive to plants.

These specimen are all cockroaches (note that they come from multiple different countries and settings), and none of them will be living in your pantry anytime soon.

warning: insect pictures below!