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Ellie Hoovs May 8
I was born with 12 eyes
they said it would make it easier
to see the light
but it only left me inching
in a fog
hiding from shape-shifting shadows.
So I learned to consume the dark
with my mandibles
and let it seep in to my hemolymph.
The parasitoids laid out fences
of peppermint and lavender -
trying to cage me.
But the oak tree took me in
and let me rest upon her leaves -
told me to shed my old skin.
I hung myself upside down under her branches
tried to see the world from their point of view
but there was still so little light,
and the birds were cawing
threatening to have me for breakfast.
I learned to hold myself tightly,
wrapped in imaginal discs
that liquified my dreams
into a rich soup for me to drink.
I emerged
soft and wet -
with ommatidia that see in all directions
and bear witness to invisible colors;
and with wings formed like dragon scales,
that move in the shape of infinity.
Now I feast with my feet,
feeding on nectar of Chloris
and cross continents
while they marvel at how far I have come
from the ground they tried to keep me on.
Zywa Dec 2024
Green on green, the grub

eats its way to the calyx --


to change colour there.
Poem "Met verte in de rug kroop" ("With distance at its back crawled", 2018, Emma Crebolder) - Pupation

Collection "Passage Passion"
Morgan Howard Sep 2024
A lowly caterpillar
Inching her way to a leaf
She spins her chrysalis
The sun rises and sets many times
But she does not see it
Because she has hidden herself away
In her cocoon
But finally
She begins to emerge
And she is no longer a lowly caterpillar
She has grown wings and can fly away
To a better reality
louella Dec 2021
One of the first things I learned
Was that caterpillars break out of their cocoons
And become beautiful butterflies.
      So I tried.
I tried
Tried and tried.
I wanted to break out of my shell
But I never could.
Or maybe I’m not brave enough
Maybe I just entered my cocoon
And I’m about to break out of it
I just need the right amount of courage.
I want to break out of my cocoon
But I don’t know how to
Traci Sims Oct 2020
**** it, did you just light your hookah?
I was hoping to have a cozy chat about the world of the Red Queen
Not the Mary Jane land you think to lead me into
where you live out your lust-filled dreams,
I was hoping for a little bit of tea
and gossip,
just as we used to when we were younger and unknown
I don't want to sit on the wet grass while you boast about your brain size
--Or other measurements--
the talk always ends up
with you under the mushroom,
giggling like a hyena,
and me just standing there,
tapping my slippered foot in disgust.
There is nothing ruder than a friend getting high while you're in the middle of a pleasant chat about nothing!
mothwasher Jul 2020
a curious family of raptor children, a lake of caterpillar carcasses (boulder soup), a grocer for the taliban, gas powered anything, the exposed midsection of a tree, bank robberies or bear maulings in progress, triangles, an irascible bus driver thinking in isosceles, the itinerant story of a mama mammoth, starquakes and extinctions, massive roaches, a neck bath in hot breath, sudden abeyance from behind, the way gravity kills caterpillars and spares us because all angles of gravity make 180 degrees and this is stillness. fear running a straight line from behind us, through us, and in front of us. what i consistently get caught up in, the third point might be my final resting. this is why i ******* hate triangles.
Bhill Apr 2020
we all have a caterpillar somewhere inside
that spirit that wants, but it just can't decide
there are roadblocks and hurdles that get in the way
where will your caterpillar take you today
what will you be when the caterpillar selects
we all hope for the Monarch, DO we get, what we get

Brian Hill - 2020 # 119
Where will your caterpillar take you today?
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