Comments on: Landscape, with Chinese Lanterns

By: Robbi Nester

Robbi Nester — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 14:06:48 +0000

In Philadelphia many years ago
even gypsy caterpillars seemed a cause
for celebration, and cabbage whites,
common as crab grass, almost like unicorns.
How then could I respond to those
infrequent visitors, black swallowtail or monarch,
drawn by an errant milkweed growing
in a vacant lot or sewer grate?
I stalked them with my net,
and finally caught a swallowtail,
body bigger than my hand. Its splendid
blue-black wings folded between my thumbs.
It lived for weeks on nectar from a tube
but all the while, it beat
its useless wings against the screen.

By: Luisa A. Igloria

Luisa A. Igloria — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 04:13:56 +0000

In reply to Beth. Beth, thank you. I was just reading your Dream of the Bony Fish and was also thinking of using it as a poem trigger. :) Perhaps I'll get to it yet. I love dream-stories.

By: Beth

Beth — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 03:01:08 +0000

I was struck by Dave’s entry when I first read it, and now by this. Thank you for painting these pictures, Luisa.