PEST CONTROL is a pocket paperback by Adorner Millar and was recently released from We the Hallowed Press. This slim volume was originally included in August’s Somatick package but is now available for wider release. It’s a prose poem about how we can find inspiration from the lowest of things. The book is best explained in the opening segment that follows:
EXTERMINATION TIMES
There’s something solid forming in the air
And the wall of death is lowered in Times Square
No one seems to care
They carry on as if nothing was there
The wind is blowing harder now
Blowing dust into my eyes
The dust settles on my skin
Making a crust I cannot move in
And I’m hovering like a fly
Waiting for the windshield on the freeway
-Genesis, Fly on the Windshield
In this time of chaos I find inspiration in the lowest of things.
The dirty things
The rejected things
The misjudged and misunderstood things
Now is not the time of majestic creatures.
We must ignore the concerns of lions or hawks or glorious stags.
For there are no bleeding hearts to advocate for our comfort
No one to preserve us from this agenda of extinction
We the tired
We the poor
We the huddled masses
We must be vermin
to survive in these vermin times
We must get down in the dirt and muck to find the examples we need.
When the establishment preaches extermination
it is time to extol the virtues of the pest
When the establishment preaches extermination
it is incumbent upon the opposition to become the nuisance
When those who assume ownership preach extermination
it is our job to infest their homes and disrupt their plans
and, make no mistake, we are living through extermination days
The extermination of the different
The extermination of novelty
The extermination of thought
The extermination of attention
The extermination of acceptance
The extermination of skepticism
The extermination of curiosity
The establishment is crafting reasons
to poison
to trap
to bait
and to fumigate
any who challenge their standards and ideals
We are left to the owners
the landlords
the barons of industry
that lord above us like apathetic gods singularly interested in the folly of their own ilk
while all other life is of little concern and are so burdened to struggle in what scraps remain
Humans can be hindered by their wider view
And it teaches the wrong things from the hive
We learn to stop asking questions and follow orders without hesitation
Even when they take us into dangerous terrain
We follow the mob
Because there is security in numbers
Even in ignorance
We break in the heavy winds instead of finding shelter
We take the bait and set off every trap
But this is not law
This is not a foregone conclusion
There are better lessons here
In this colony
***
And so I petition the better angels
Of these misfits
the rats
the insects
the parasites
the Vermin
and I invoke how they thrive while others suffer.
If we are to be branded with the language of vermin then let us embrace it
Like vermin we are only burdened by this status through perspective.
A rat is only a parasite to those who feel afflicted
they are just another animal otherwise
They existed before the context they now find thrust upon them
And they will far outlive it as well
Vermin do not ask the host for permission to live
If food is needed it eats.
If rest is needed
shelter is found.
Vermin wish for nothing more than an existence of pure, instinctual freedom
Freedom that is unencumbered by forces who wish them nothing but harm
Vermin do not strive to do harm
Vermin merely exist in a world disrupted by the machinations of those who believe in their superiority
Tyranny is the ant farm: an illusion of choice and progress that is built to serve a master’s whim.
***
A single termite doesn’t devour the entire board
A single flea doesn’t drain their prey dry
It’s the curse of being human that we can see a greater goal
while being blind to the incremental actions that get us there
We are all burdened with natural instincts
but ours have become a hindrance while theirs have allowed them to survive for ages
Vermin endure
Vermin endure because nature has rewarded them with hard won tendencies and the instinct to survive
Vermin endure because they have been forced to acclimate to the dirt and trash and shit and the struggle has inspired their evolution into survivors
Vermin endure and so must we
***
It is in this spirit that I want to explore what I see as the four tenets of The Vermin Class:
Resilience
Collaboration
Improvisation
Obscurity
These core pillars illustrate just how much influence vermin can hold
No matter how small
No matter how few
They have the potential to be a catastrophic disruption
Let us set aside our repulsion and burrow in
This 50 page chapbook is $6 and can be ordered here.
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