Artificial Light - July 9 2022

 

Artificial Light

July 9 2022

How moths fly erratically,

pale wings

flashing like strobes

in the artificial light,

the porch lamp

attracting them

like an irresistible force.

I am told they have evolved this way

to evade the radar of bats,

a clever tactic

in the perennial battle

of predator and prey.

When even the cover of dark

cannot protect them.

Butterflies, the same

but for birds.

A matter of life and death

for these small defenceless creatures.

But we forget

how unforgiving nature is

and see them as poetry;

flitting through the air

over sunlit meadows

light as gossamer.

See their multi-coloured wings

not as a means

to confuse keen avian eyes,

but as beauty

for its own sake.

As if the natural world

was there for our pleasure.

As if nature was frivolous

instead of frugal.

The porch light

is a harsh bluish-white.

It illuminates the stairs, but washes-out the sky,

so even on clear moonless nights

only the brightest stars

are visible.

The sound is loud and distracting,

determined moths

attracted to he hot bright fixture

battering the glass

repeatedly.

As they fly into screens

collide with windows.

And by morning

a few exhausted moths

are resting there

too spent to have fed.

While so many more

are scattered underneath;

dead bodies

needing to be swept.