–for Alasdair
The small boy leans in nose to caterpillar
which munches the frond of a fennel plant
vivid green yellow spots black and pale white
transverse bands But the boy needs more
and touches it there in its final days
of perfect prose eating molting ready
to pupate In its green-brown chrysalis
it will liquify before it begins
to transmigrate to spring its Amazing
Great Dissolve That butterflies remember
their caterpillar lives that specific
neural connections and memories survive
is the story that will beguile the boy
who reads their wild free verse poems on the sky
