November 24-25, 2021

There is a boy inside the man

who can see a Tiger Moth

(he still calls it a Woolly Bear

or Fuzzy Wuzzy, it depends

on his day’s fleeting whimsy)

alone, defenseless on a road

and cuddle it to its other side

the encounter another glory

in his endlessly glorious day

This man, grown around the boy

can also see the Tiger Moth

(but more stranger to whimsy

than to bare stated fact

shrinks to give it another name)

will guide it to the road’s shore

in honour of their mutual God

reflecting another’s glory

in his relentlessly quiet day

A raging monster lurks in both

though seeing a Tiger Moth

(he wouldn’t call it anything

beyond that moment’s target

of his ever-seething wrath)

would not help it cross a road

but crush it where it crawled

foul stranger to the glory

brightens his despicable day