The Backyard Zoo

by Jim Dunlap

"Butterfly"

I had just returned from the parking lot. Sometimes when the students de-bus and line up to enter the building, I like to run from the backdoor screaming, "They’re loose! Run for your lives!" Anyway, on my way through the door I looked up and seen a huge moth. I seen a huge moth. It still sounds right, and I love messing with spell check. I saw a big moth on the doorframe. The green color reminded me of pie for some reason. It was an adult luna moth.

The luna is a large moth with a wingspan of three to four inches. It is nocturnal and ranges from Northern Mexico to Canada. The lime green wings make it a beauty to behold. The caterpillars are lime green with orange spots along the sides. The favorite food is sweet gum, walnut, or hickory trees. The adults do not feed.

As I stood and watched that moth so high, the words of Wordsworth came to mind, as he waxed poetic in To a Butterfly.

Come often, fear no wrong;

Sit near us on the bough!

We’ll talk of sunshine and of song,

And summer days, when we were young;

Sweet childish days, that were as long

As twenty days are now.

A luna eclipse scares me, although I am not a lunatic, but I have been compared to a lunatoon. My colleagues told me I could not get those words into one sentence in this column. Ha! Somewhere in this, I am just kidding. Pick one you like.

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