Live And Let Die

Live And Let Die

A chrysalis is pronounced with a certain
spill of lips, lidded together in the
beginning, a ribbed clasp of the mouth
and the mouth then opens, the parting of
teeth pulls an inhalation inward first, then
upon the outflow, we exhale with a solid
"k" pronunciation, letting the soft "cry"
escape into the air surrounding our ears,
and as that soft sound emerges, the "s"
consonant now slides outward on same breath,
the sound of "salis" sails 'tween our teeth
clenched together, sending sound waves
'round the room and into the ears of those
who can hear it in rapt wonder. And we sit
in our wooden chairs, looking out the glass
of the classroom windows seeking out just
exactly where do we find such wonders
but then it is revealed to us that Nature
has purpose all her own, undeniable and
with phenomenal force, the clocks within
the classroom hold nothing in common with
her design in hand. We are told that her
timing is always perfect, her nature though
cold and aloof to some, never fails. The
projector casts the movie upon the palate
of concrete block painted off-white just
for this purpose, as we see the pupae
hanging, sack-like and held to the underside
of a large leaf by a twig-like attachment
that reminded me of the seed of sycamore
trees, held encased in a tough nutshell
casing whose attachments were used by the
First Peoples to make bowstrings many.
We see the ribbed casing split open in
a fast-forward motion of the movie, at
times distracted by the pattern of concrete
block lines where mortar joined them
together. And as the pupae gave way to
the chrysalis, and as the chrysalis in
its birthing wetness gave us the beauty
of the tiger swallowtail pirhouetting
before flying off, I am struck by two
profound reasons both at once so it seems,
mortared together with concrete reasons.

Mother Nature cares not whether you live.

And she cares not one bit whether you die.

Live and let die ...

© Copyright 2020 Windtalker (sentinelseeker at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.

Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates have been granted non-exclusive rights to display this work.