(Moth, moth, moth…)

This one soft word falls so far short

Of what the moth world means

Open up this soft word’s wings

And out flocks

Moth, moth, moth…

Like scraps of cloth (cloth, cloth, cloth)

Moth, moth, moth

Like leaves aloft (-loft -loft -loft)

Moth, moth, moth

Like fragments of a map

Like pieces of atlas

Birthed by dark to froth (froth, froth, froth)

Round torch and lamp and porch

Thickening air together

Into a kind of broth (broth, broth, broth)

Into a kind of weather

Open up this soft word’s wings

And out sings Ghost Moth, Hawk Moth, Emperor And Feathered Gothic

Out flocks Flame and Tiger, Dusky Hook-tip, Lime and Lichen Leopard, Dart and Dagger Magpie, Eggar, March, December, Mottled Umber

Thickening air together

Into broth

Into weather

Moth, moth, moth

This one soft word falls so far short

Of what the Moth world means

Of scraps of cloth

Of leaves aloft

But thinner and thinner wears the cloth

The broth, the weather,

Fewer and fewer flock the moths

Together, together

Trackless is the atlas

Fractured the map

Trackless the atlas

Fractured the map

Open up this soft word’s wings

Hold moth-names in mouth awhile

Sing them out as flight,

As tapestry and silver light,

As map and moon and leaf,

Ghost Moth, Hawk Moth, Feathered Gothic

Flame and Tiger, Lime and Lichen, Dart and Dagger, Magpie, Eggar, March, December, Mottled Umber

Moon, map, leaf,

(Moth, moth, moth…)