Butterflies

Tears of the Virgin,
Do not fall on my behalf.
Souls of the dead,
Pass me by.
Shall I spend my life
Awaiting the black butterfly?

Painted Lady, Black Satyr, Cloudless Sulphur,
Fly on,fly on,
Eastern Comma, Goldenrod Stowaway, Marbled Fritillary,
Come and go, go and come,
Mourning Cloak and Paradise Birdwing, Small Postman and Southern Festoon,
Throw me some light from your wings.

Think how ants ally themselves with a myrmecophilous caterpillar,
Defending the host from enemies,
And in return are licensed to milk its “honeydew”.
Rapt as opium addicts, the myrmidons stroke that giant body,
And greedily sup the clear delicious elixir, loath to stop,
Until, at last, the caterpillar, impatient with their attentions,
Taps the ground to signal an end.

In Australia, the Bright Copper caterpillar
Reigns in a rich underground chamber built and maintained by ants;
Amid twenty butterfly larvae and ten pupae;
Day and night a single larva may be attended by twenty-five ants,
Like pages in the service of a queen,
Rewarded with sweet liquor, a heady cocktail.

In England, the Large Blue caterpillar
Is carried off to their underground chamber by wood ants,
There, she feasts on the ant grubs, their own precious offspring,
Which they willingly feed the honoured guest,
Then she pupates and the butterfly emerges,
And stands before the bewildered infuriated ants,
Her true nature revealed, her honey glands gone;
Pursued by her angry hosts, she escapes with a ruse,
Exuding sticky substance that entangles their feet;
Hurriedly the butterfly flees to the surface
Spreads her wings and flies off into the air.

Male apollo butterflies grab females in flight
Or capture them on the ground,
Drawn to the virgins’ scent as they hide in the grass,
And brutishly ravish them;
After mating, the jealous male secretes and glues
A sphragis over the female’s abdomen,
A heavy chastity belt meant to last a lifetime
And keep her from other suitors for the rest of her life.