It is also the month of the AtoZ Challenge, and my 8th year in participating.
Combining the two, I am writing poems based on Maine vanity plates I've spied this past year.
The AtoZ does not have a letter for Sundays, but I will post a non-vanity plate or extra vanity plate poem on that day.
On this 9th day of the Challenge, we are on the letter I.
I is for...
Into Insects
When I was but a little girl,
and even when I grew some,
butterflies and grasshoppers
would sit upon my small thumb.
As I grew tall and older, too,
bugs weren't so much a friend;
I kind of had an inkling that
our friendship soon would end.
No longer did I capture bugs
to study, pet and feed;
I only liked them for the way
they filled a robin's need.
For baby birds and snakes and frogs
eat hundreds in the spring -
But I can't think of a worse treat
Than a squirmy, leggy thing -
I will not help the birds catch bugs
They'll have to hunt alone
And snakes and frogs will have to find
sweet insects on their own.
But as I sit and watch my kids
enthralled with little creatures
But as I sit and watch my kids
enthralled with little creatures
I've come to rediscover awe
of creepy-crawly features.
by Donna JT Smith ©2019
That's really nice! I like your attitude towards insects. I hated watching people kill bees that fell into the neighborhood pool. I moved caterpillars off the tennis courts in high school so they wouldn't get stepped on. I like to think they were pretty butterfly larvae, but they were probably baddies from the oak trees! My youngest had a male Madagascan hissing cockroach for a pet! "Greg" didn't hiss, he was too tame. Last summer "Waldo" the praying mantis took up residence in my butterfly garden. Each morning was a "Where's Waldo" search for him!
ReplyDeleteI do swap mosquitoes of course!
When I was a kid I swear butterflies would play tag with me. They would light and then fly off just a little ways until I caught up with them. My sister and I would capture grasshoppers and bring them up to our bedroom and "teach" them to walk up a slanted surface instead of jumping! Lol! If they jumped we'd pick them up and start them back at the beginning of the slope. It was my first foray into behavior modification.
DeleteLove the ending, Donna. I love insects & so does Imogene, was much enthralled last year when her class studied them a lot! My son kept stink bugs as pets for a while. We still laugh about that. He was so interested in them.
ReplyDeleteQuite an enjoyable poem. It felt like a mini journey through childhood with pleasant memories popping up - along with smiles.
ReplyDeletehttp://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com/
I is for: Infamous-Prison Secrets
(Theme: very short stories/varied genres)