Release of the Cabbage Looper Moth

Release of the Cabbage Looper Moth

 

 

It beat its fuzzed breastbone against the taut paper towel ceiling

we had constructed over the glass jar, like a fishbowl in its expanse,

the rubber band snug under the rim. My exacting daughter poked air holes,

jaws jutting at new angles, mandibles clamped around the secret of Six.

For days we had held the cocoon captive. Tacky and transparent,

like a spider’s egg sack, we patrolled the tuft for any sign of change,

no idea who was tucked into that dreaming skin while it clung

to a single dried rose hip, cradled by grass and lemon balm.

 

In the dark, the paper crane mobile taunted in slow swirls.

I pulled the thin quilt up to her chin, covering the tanned, river-smooth chest,

white buttons of her pajama shirt undone and flung, as everything is

which I try to tuck at midnight. Within the soft pink cave of her mouth

teeth shifted within bone like tectonic plates, tremoring with song.

The din of the grating of the world. By morning

I barely recognized this creature that tunneled itself to daylight,

shed meconium from its wings with a Pollack flourish against the glass.

The abandoned cotton molt was impossibly small.

 

Before we could name it and give it purpose, the band broke in the garden.

Over sage, under fir. Last seen, the moth trammeled past

her surprised moon-face – shoulder blades unkitting themselves to reach –

through a netting of needles, a pin-prick, blue-bound.

 

– Thank you, Oregon State Poetry Association, for awarding my lil’ poem 1st Place in Poet’s Choice category! This one is for my little bug guardians, A & J.

Poetry and Prose for the People Reading Series, Oct. 21

Poetry and Prose for the People Reading Series Barnes & Noble Lloyd Center, PDX Third Wednesdays (except holiday months) Hosted by Sage Cohen and Tomas Mattox Wednesday, October 21, 7:00 p.m. Barnes & Noble 1317 Lloyd Center // Gift section Portland, OR 97232 503-249-0800

Presenting poets Judith Arcana, Kristin Berger and Laurel Blossom

Judith Arcana writes poems, stories, essays and books. Her recent chapbook, 4th Period English, reads like a play: poems in the voices of high school students talking about immigration. Among her prose books is Grace Paley’s Life Stories, A Literary Biography. She lives in Portland, Oregon; visit her website: juditharcana.com.

Kristin Berger lives with her family in Portland, Oregon, where she serves as an editorial member of VoiceCatcher. Kristin’s poetry and essays have appeared in Calyx, New Letters, The Pedestal Magazine, and The Wild Goose Poetry Review. She is the author of a poetry chapbook, For the Willing (Finishing Line Press, 2008), an Oregon Book Award nominee. Her non-fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Read more at www.kristinberger.wordpress.com.

Laurel Blossom’s book-length narrative poem, Degrees of Latitude, was published by Four Way Books in November, 2007. Her most recent book of lyric poetry is Wednesday: New and Selected Poems, Ridgeway Press, 2004. Earlier books include The Papers Said (Greenhouse Review Press, 1993), What’s Wrong (Cobham & Hatherton Press, 1987), and Any Minute (Greenhouse Review Press, 1979). Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies, including 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, edited by Billy Collins (Random House, 2005), and in national journals including Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Pequod, The Paris Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Deadsnake Apotheosis, Many Mountains Moving, Seneca Review, and Harper’s, among others. Her poetry has been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and the Elliston Prize. Learn more at www.laurelblossom.com.