Walt Amses: Shelter from the swarm

Editor’s note: Walt Amses is a writer and former educator who lives in Calais.
The black flies seem gone. I almost chortle to myself before the first deer fly hits my forehead with such velocity I flinch, as if dinged by a pellet gun. A mile down the road I’m convinced they’ve mistaken me for a donkey or some other, not particularly astute, barnyard creature as they try to get behind my sunglasses and chew on the soft skin around my eyes, which I assume is either delicious or v