Mantz Yorke
Tiger Moth
Nettle leaves curl brittle and brown
around the cocoon:
a month has already gone
since the silken threads were spun.
My grandfather taught me
all about habitats, pupation
and the fragility of wings.
From his collection
he gave me a fritillary
spreadeagled in a box:
to this fierce patriarch
I dared not confess
the shattered glass,
the segments and scales
scattered like thresh-husk
in a gust of wind.
Now, a different age. I watch gaudiness
slowly uncrumpling inside the jar,
and have to choose: drowse and pin
a spread unblemished by careless touch,
or unscrew the jar’s nail-holed lid
and let the moth fly free.
Mantz Yorke lives in Manchester, England. His poems have appeared in a number of print magazines, anthologies and e-magazines in the UK, Ireland, the US and Hong Kong.
Tiger Moth
Nettle leaves curl brittle and brown
around the cocoon:
a month has already gone
since the silken threads were spun.
My grandfather taught me
all about habitats, pupation
and the fragility of wings.
From his collection
he gave me a fritillary
spreadeagled in a box:
to this fierce patriarch
I dared not confess
the shattered glass,
the segments and scales
scattered like thresh-husk
in a gust of wind.
Now, a different age. I watch gaudiness
slowly uncrumpling inside the jar,
and have to choose: drowse and pin
a spread unblemished by careless touch,
or unscrew the jar’s nail-holed lid
and let the moth fly free.
Mantz Yorke lives in Manchester, England. His poems have appeared in a number of print magazines, anthologies and e-magazines in the UK, Ireland, the US and Hong Kong.