Rosy Tabby moth
A dragon perched, a mantling hawk
chestnut-pink, lifting from leaf litter
bathroom ceiling light surrounding
when you were as nothing was
holding arches over your mind
Bee moth
Wax-devouring, brood-borer
grey silk sheath torpedo
bearing the beekeeper’s curse
– melltith ar y nyth –
bane, your broad back will take it
Eyed Hawk-moth
Thumb-sized blood-dark pupa splits
silver-black fluffy slug pumps out its wings
breathing into them as
slow pink eyes unfold
to drop a giant’s glare
Geoff Sawers has recorded butterflies and moths where he lives (in Reading, UK) for many years and is working on a sequence of poems, My Name Is Shadow, about them. He is a single dad with a disabled child.