I scuff past limp leaves
of brown and red and gold:
a glorious profusion
hugging the base of a stately maple,
aware that under the soggy blanket
sleeping larvae hide,
sharing protection, shelter, food,
with moth pupae, insects,
toads and salamanders.
From this humble shelter,
I envision, come April,
as the sun warms and beckons,
the lifting of a hundred wings
out of the crumbled leaf-litter,
a fluttering bouquet of butterflies,
arising joyously
to brighten all
our springtime days.
I am always blown away by the workings of Mother Nature, how everything works together to make the whole. What an amazing design, each being interlinked with every other. It's brilliant.
for my prompt at earthweal, where we are contemplating how wolves change rivers, how salmon impact forests and how each species is part of, and affects, the whole: what happens to one, happens to us all.
I've been fascinated with leaf litter lately too and have been taking lots of photos of it that I post on Instagram. It is amazing how fertile it is and how many life forms have their genesis there. Suzanne Of Mapping Uncertainty
ReplyDeleteWhat a joyous poem, Sherry! Butterflies especially remind us of the fragility and ephemeral beauty of life.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, we have to keep looking ahead and envisioning the beauty that will come, as it always does, in spring!
ReplyDeleteThis is thinking with the whole ecosystem. Love it.
ReplyDeleteIt is a continuous wonder.
ReplyDeleteI, too, enjoy looking at what sloughs off in the autumn and how it helps its own and other species survive. That said, I won't be innocently sloshing through the dead leaves now that I think of them as a blanket (no matter how soggy)!
ReplyDeletewishing I could sleep as well as those larvae ~
ReplyDelete