A tangential to the Artist in Residence Insect Hotel project 2020.
Insect Poetry
INSECT HOTEL
This hotel will make you smile.
Check it out and stay awhile.
Have we got a room for you?
Tiny friends indeed we do.
Tuck in tunnels warm and snug.
Perfect beds for any bug.
Underneath leaf litter – crunch.
Might find something good for lunch.
Time for dinner. Time for tea.
Door is open. Here’s the key.
Come on in – creep or crawling.
Fly in visit comforts calling.
Call it home – a new frontier.
Be our guest your home is here.
—
Centipede
Take heed! Take heed! Oh, Centipede
With legs of many – hundred-fold
You like to paralyze and eat
Roaches, moths, spiders – worms so cold
Dinner’s menu be such wiggly meat
You are the perfect pest control
At least cupboards you cannot deplete
And I can keep what’s mine to eat
Living in pure harmony
Together ever peacefully
In this house – In this home
Oh, Centipede we’re not alone.
—
Hairy Footed Flower Bee
Hairy Footed Flower Bee
Time for dinner, time for tea.
Fancy dining you and me?
Hairy Footed Flower Bee.
I’ll be kind, yes you will see
Serving flowers faithfully.
I’ll comb your hair and brush your feet.
I promise something good to eat
Lungwort and then red dead-nettle
Served, then I’ll put on the kettle
Not for you but tea for me.
That’s how it’s supposed to be.
—
Skippers
See the Skippers Large and Small
steer above en masse they fly
clouds manoeuvre one and all
not at helms of ships whereby
navigating undertow
sea of wings within blue sky
cruise till hunger – Earth below
calls – cries out to satisfy
needs for both – float down descend
over moorlands’ spread buffet
brambles highly recommend
feed them – send them on their way
sleepy bellies full to brim
rest departing in delay
grounded as the light grows dim
tomorrow is another day