Pyrrharctia isabella

Pyrrharctia Isabella

 

Steps crunching through a crispy fall tree carpet,
 

homeward with some needed grocery,

A dervish of wind spirals up a leafy flurry,

 diverting my attention to a

dark fur ball uncovered from her flimsy shelter;

A banded wooly bear caterpillar,

farmer’s prophet, legend-tasked to foretell  duration of the coming cold.

Such a great expectation for such a small little fuzzy thing,

who will not even witness her own prophecy

frozen solid until spring

when she will thaw and begin a voracious

journey through yet another season,

relentless, until years of persistence finally grant her few brief days of

metamorphic freedom to fly high above her former world

to find a mate and continue this grand cycle.

What joy and satisfaction I imagine in store for little Isabella.

Another gust, and leaves once again grant her private space.

 I continue on from my encounter,

 filled with great wonderment  

at the grace of such a tiny creature.

 

-Jerry Wendt 2015