The Very Hungry Caterpillar

After gluttony the insatiable rain

Drowns the earth and all the ruins
Remain cannot be finished off

You climb up to the highest post
A lemon tree

You become visible suspected at first
Of being bird excrement
Its odd landing

Visible through the kitchen window
Of all who can dislocate you from a leaf

To the concrete with a twig
And unsure what you believe

When jabbed when your red-horned tongue flashes
Out of your grotesque head

I poke you writhe
A green juice oozes out of you the color

Of the earth you ravaged
Mint and thyme

The next day the sun
The rest of your clan
A festival on branches

Your cranium a Worf's
Your future a swallowtail




All rights reserved. Reprinted with the permission of the author.