To a Luna Moth
Drawing and Poem by Ray Zimmerman.
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To a Luna Moth You flitted from a page in a book of poems. pulled from my bookshelf one restless night. Dawn was nearer that sunset, but not by much. There you were, an apparition out of time with no summer warmth to fuel your flight but I remembered seeing you on summer nights. How alien you appear to my mind, with powdered wings to bear you aloft to heights that I will never reach. Mouthless you left eating behind with that caterpillar skin you shed. Do you feel the pangs of hunger? Those feather antennae direct your life. They detect the scent of a female a mile or more away, and off you go. You live a few brief days to leave a legacy of caterpillars. So alien, so beautiful, so human.
The Chattanooga Audubon Society will hold the annual Folk and Fairies Festival with music, storytelling, crafts activities, and a celebration of the natural world, May24-26 at the Audubon Acres facility: https://www.chattanoogaaudubon.org/fairyandfolk.html.
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