The first crisp tool in a small set ofperfect lockpicks this slickwasp learns how to twistis time. A solitary operativewhose name honorsthe bird famous for itshome invasions; obligate brood andkleptoparasiticcrafter without craft,not a papermaker like her makerspace-industrioushostess who 3D printsa many-chambered paper shelterwith her drooling mouthparts,cuckoo paper waspwhose patience is a weapon whetted slowlyjust waits as thereal paper wasp foundressspit-forges her nest, killing time late-lying in her bed ofwinter mind-hummingHelter Skelter to the cuckoo paper waspeggs depth-chargingwithin her. Then, preparedby visions shared by the most poised ofathletes, practitionersof mental trainingwho feel their achievements before achievingthem because theyknow imaginationis muscle equal to the heart, sheemerges from her longoverwinteringalready on the hot prowl; malware's mascot,she creepy-crawlsthe spring wind with her six-jointed forelegs, watches paper waspcomplete and provisionher nest from a shortdistance whence, as if out of swift nowhere, soobliviousis the paper wasp andconsequently not en garde againstwhat she can't imagine,serves herself as botheviction notice and quick enforcer, aconspicuousexample of how thoseof us who don't know how to make ourhomes make the ones we findours, story lines I'vefollowed alone too many times on hoteltelevisionscaled back for anodyneapocalypse programming that theentire history ofcivilizationis the slow-motion dress rehearsal for: shemurders her andusurps her nest. How? Inplace of skill, paper wasp 2.0honed her face to use asa club. Pronouns hunga scrim behind which wasp double-crossed wasp andher nest becamehers; then she lays furtherclaim to it by laying her own waspeggs there among those theauthentic paperwasp placed first, each forthcoming life a secretfroth brimming itsneat wasp-paper cell, theweirdest cupcake batter aquiverin thin paper liners.What a terriblebirthday party planned in resentment and guiltand love. Hard tograsp in pictures, I climba step stool with a flashlight and peerinto the rafters tosee this nest myselfresisting my sister-in-law's demands touse the broom she'strying to hand up tome to sweep it down, and even thenwho knows what's what, who's who,can tell a fatalcradle from a throne? By now the new queen hasassumed the scentof the host she killed byrubbing herself against the nest totake on the essence ofthe paper chewed inthe murdered wasp's small mouth, like dry-bathing inthe parched jaw ofdeath, a sacred lake bedwhose dust consecrates her in what's called"chemical camouflage"by those of us whothink we have the distance not to become thesubjects of thisqueen. But who knows? To thequeen the queen is the queen. Deceptionand Self-Deception wasa popular courseat the college I attended long agothat was one ofthose mansions before thatbuilt on other people's loss on farm-land secured by slaughter.Of the spirit ofthe bald eagle, observed more easily insitu than thereal estate dealings ofwasps, Benjamin Franklin is said tohave said he wished it notthe chosen emblemof this land. That bald eagle's dishonestyis bald-faced. Youmust have seen one perched highupon a dead spruce, his visage inserious profile soiconic it's likebeholding a living coin transacting thewild air. Thereis an eagle somewhereon our money, isn't there? I couldswear it but what a longtime since studyinga quarter. Remember the satisfactionletting go ofone into a slit cutfor it exactly, utterly insync with spending powerdeparting the loudarcade with one coin left over to phone yourmom? The heft ofthe cold receiver anddelve of the coin into a Delphiccleft in metal where thateagle descendedto fish—if he fished. Too lazy to hunt forhimself, he trainshis aristocraticlong-range gaze on an osprey fishingtwo miles downriver. Whenthat bird has made hiscatch and is bearing it back to the nest tofeed his young ourbird pursues and steals it.You have seen one perched on a spruce andknown the score. But here inthis paper nest Ican't stop looking at there's no seeing what conthe cuckoo wasplarvae are pulling tomove the worker paper wasps, emergednow with no suspicionthat their queen is deador that spring said long live the queen, to feed themfirst, before theyfeed their own. That subtleincompetence a cuckoo paperwasp is born wielding thata real paper waspresponds to with its wasted love is what makesa cuckoo wasp,not a papermakerbut a maker of the law, a betterchoice.