there was a man – once who had
bad sperience after bad sperience
with fireworks (one exploded on his foot)
now i’m awed by a man who had
bad sperience after bad sperience
with bugs which choose to grow in beds
but i admit as a child i was haunted by the
thought
asked my father “from whence doest they come?”
to which he replied “he who doth not wash his sheets”
so every friday like clockwork
i laid in bed and feared what might happen
should i choose not to get up
and swap out those threads on which i lay
the sieve and the sand 
i really hope you and your father actually speak in this manner.
Me too.
R. Mugs–I have asked myself the same question, and I haven’t found the answer. I don’t have access to the OED at this moment, but I did look up “bedbug” in that fabulous dictionary (if I had access to the OED right now I could have come up with a finer word than “fabulous”) the other day, and the earliest entry dated to the nineteenth century. Surely bedbugs predate beds, though, so what were they called in those days? I’ll find out and let you know.
Thank you for this lovely ode.
Also, Mr. Mugs, I’m glad you like my new photo.
rc – how doth one speaketh to his father if not formally?
ned – i’ll hold my breath…
Maybe beds didn’t exist before the nineteenth century, thus no bed bugs. Perhaps we only think that beds existed in the past because the ruling class controls the past in an orwelesk manner and has created for us a past in which beds existed in the 19th century. And so, the point that I am belatedly getting to is that perhaps your (ned’s) finding of bedbugs only dating back to the 19th century is proof of the proverbial wool that has been pulled over all of our eyes.
I’ll investigate that aspect, too.
i wonder if there are any bugs in that wool…
the homes of the vassals before the 19th century were made of straw and other materials provided insulation for them, however insects and “bed bugs” lived in them as well and would bite and spread diseases and stuff