A Poetic Take on a Pest
Caledon poet Marilyn Boyle takes the gypsy moth caterpillar as her latest subject after her oak tree was decimated in the summer of 2020.
Caledon poet Marilyn Boyle is a member of the League of Canadian Poets and her work has appeared in several literary journals. This summer her oak tree was decimated by gypsy moth caterpillars. Luckily, the trees sent out a second set of leaves that give her hope for the future.
When gypsy moths are adolescent
When gypsy moths are adolescent
Furry bodied caterpillars
Gentle feelers flung wide to touch
the world
Synchronized legs trembling behind
Having glutted themselves on grasses, green things
They string themselves high aloft
Drop from branches into
Spatial vapours, wind and storm
Wantonly swung, elements control.
Twisting between the gusts
Circle unto themselves feeling
Beginnings and endings in their
Bodies gray, red dotted, white striping
Many legs suggesting newer ways
To snap the cord that keeps
them dangling
And squirming alternate circular
Touching they begin the head
Of their cocoon.
– Marilyn Boyle
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