Ladybug Bea

Now that spring has arrived, old Man Winter asleep,
‘tis the time for us insects and others who creep.
For the world is a garden with soil extant,
compost rich for green stalk and each flowering plant.

Call me Ladybug Bea in my realm of the small,
(light of day I’ve not seen since the tail end of fall.)
I am basic bug humble as lady bugs go;
(perhaps shadow perceived is a man with a hoe.)

Scurry I on a bud, seedling bursting with root;
over there canyon deep from a gardener’s boot.
I am sauntering lady in desert of loam;
still I’m happy for spring in the seed-plots I roam.

Caterpillars cocooned months ago caught my eye,
yet they’re ready to blossom into butterfly.
Aphids, beetles and vine borers all gather ‘round;
April rain eager for growth to spring from the ground.

In the mountains and valleys of furrow-tilled dirt,
I am fancy free lady with penchant to flirt
with the warmth and the glow of the increasing sun
for the energy light and for lady bug fun.

As I bask in the glow with my back all agleam,
comes a green dinosaur as if Jurassic dream.
But in truth it’s another big bug fronting me;
preying mantis, bug-eyed static-pose that I see.

Near the garden in green, boxwood bush lush and thick,
home to many a gnat, mad mosquito and tick.
In the morning the webbing of spiders appear--
from arachnids silk strings made by wee engineer.

So much bigger than that hops a rabbit my way;
and I know this Bugs Bunny--oh, what can I say?
(Information from other bugs often occur,
  for the lady bug grapevine is knowledge for sure.)

Then a riot of rain floods and I am afloat;
all at once there’s a river and I am a boat.
It’s the humans, I hear, with a watering pail;
so I‘ll go with the flow and in time I‘ll prevail.

Yes I know of tall giants and hoe-man all right,
reaching up to the clouds from my lowly bug sight.
Yet with creatures so great and the hazards they bring,
I am Ladybug Bea, clicking my heels for spring.


40 Lines
Anapestic Tetrameter
Writer’s Cramp Winner
3-9-16