It's Still Life

The Box Tree Caterpillars

Sometime during nighttime’s
doorful of sky, they made mischief.

Moths laying eggs. Spinning
white web shrouds.

They’re all over the place, he says.

Last week the eggs started hatching.

Caterpillars, eating my box trees.
Stringy threads
of stripped sticks and stems.

Oops. Overdosing on S alliteration there.

Those moths partitioned my world.
Me vs caterpillars.

I’m like metabolic spit.
A vengeful moon at your chrysalis.

My box plants are beyond saving.

Not like when I’d sink my toy boat
in the bathtub, and it’d pop back up
so I could save the crew.

Here’s another one over here, I say,
and he hands me the can Bug Off.

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Artwork is created using AI Midjourney. Imagery and poems ©Misky 2023.