Luna

Brianna Le / V Mag at UVA

Actias luna

Family Saturniidae,

Subfamily Saturniinae.

Yes, you. The little moth fluttering against my lightbulb.

I haven’t met a moth that can speak,

But considering you’ve been conjured 

from your chrysalis without mouthparts

I won’t hold your silence against you.

I first wondered how you eat, but

I’ve found how your stoic disinterest in life

Left you to navigate your few moments

On a single tank

What cursed, selfless creature are you

To spend your entire infinity

In days I could count on my hand,

Fluttering silent midnight miles

In search of another condemned companion

And in your last quivering seconds of life

Give your very life-blood for your

Mother’s same tautology

So dearest Luna,

Please take yourself from my lightbulb.

What right have you to waste those beautiful green 

Wings on such a pointless endeavor? What right 

Have you to take your mortal specs of existence 

And dump it by my window? The desperate energy in

Those laboring wings makes me wonder 

If you’ve forgotten your

Own tragic mortality, 

Forgotten how little doomed life there’s

Left to coax from you 

But like some carnival ride caught in loop, you still flutter your

Audacious waltz and struggle to birth another crop of

Cursed creatures that too

Can flutter their beautiful wings away

Beside some other flickering lightbulb,

And pass on the very same cataclysmic gift

Your mother gave to you