Insects know their purpose
So much so it can boggle the mind
How can you be so sure
Crickets
Their perfect summer song
waivers only in self-protection
Ants, spiders, yellow jackets
They act with a certainty
backed by eons of interacting
with the earth as one
Dragonfly, praying mantis
They do not try
To tame this green planet
Ladybugs.
Beetles.
What strange and beautiful names we give to insects.
June bug, silverfish, cockroach
Wasp     butterfly     no-see-um.
Poetry in motion.
Words as intricate as spiders’ webs,
sitting
on the page
like dew drops      suspended      in spider homes.
or
Those strings of silk that hang from the trees
in spring
With little caterpillars dangling at their ends,
ready to drop onto your clothes
unnoticed.
Three out of every four creatures on this earth are insects.
We spend much time
stamping on them
sweeping them out of corners
spraying ourselves with poisons
to keep them away
But they have the true reign over this planet.
Cicada
Grasshopper
Bumblebee.
Nature’s raw beauty and brutality.
Damsel flies, wood bugs
and
demodicids          those tiny bugs
that live in the roots of our eyelashes
so small
we could never notice them if we tried.

The muse may very well be a spider
Weaving words like
Threads
Sometimes close together
or     spread
far     apart
Sometimes exquisite
Magical as the dew that
Reflects the sun’s first light
Sometimes
A sticky mass of confusion
Ready to break apart
at the gentlest affront
Better luck next time

As summer marches proudly
Over the mountains
Into our gardens
The talk of the town
Mosquitoes birth themselves
In still water and hum towards
Campsites and family of deer.
Termite, tick, moth.
Grasshopper, lacewing, horse fly.
The warmth sends us
hurrying from our homes
like bees from smoke
moths toward the flame
Our pale winter hides
may be burned by hot May sun
but at last
with the summer breeze on our skin
the smell of salt and warm earth
cottonwood and blueberry
at last we begin to remember
who we are
and where we came from
listening to the crickets
singing their stories of creation
into the night

Written May 2014