Eastern tent caterpillars

Mid-spring, skinny, black, blind

eastern tent caterpillars"- 

Malacosoma americanum"- 

falling from the cherry tree

leaning, human, over our deck.

Irksome. Mash and kick

them with my feet, continue

practicing or reading.

Three weeks later, reading

late at night. Heavy-bodied

black-eyed, reflexed antennae"

many hundreds of moths

crave the lamplight, some attaining

extinction through cracks

around the window screen. Vexing.

Until next morning, I look

up the name that has eluded me

all spring and early summer.

The single-minded moth and larval colony"- 

one small monophony.