ODE TO THE NEW YORK LANTERNFLY
I can’t stop admiring the dead.
They cover my every direction
leaving behind the spectacular
carnage of their significant
and insignificant lives.
Is it when we gather
and with whom
that stamps us into memory?
Is it the streets devouring
the daily pandemonium
and a late warmth rising
against our indifference
to the surrounding miracle?
First we take flight
then the loose ends of our lives
fray into thinner stories
until only the dog is sated
only the ceaseless gaze
of here and now
is turned to you in prayer—
the air filled with ideas
you have spent your life
escaping. The footsteps
of any family curse.
The learning of your own
desire
to annihilate
or how it feels
to hold a creature
even once
by its wings.
—from Poets Respond
__________
Kirsten Shu-ying Chen: “It’s that time of year again. Walking around this weekend in the late summer heat with hordes of Lanternflies everywhere and various tensions in the air, I couldn’t help but see their stamped out deaths as somewhat reflective of both the very real human deaths that seem to surround and numb us daily, as well as the metaphorical deaths we negotiate internally within ourselves. Why are we humans so driven to destroy? Where does this desire come from? And what—if any—good can we do with it? Admittedly, I’ve got more questions than answers.” (web)
