Hornworm: Autumn Lamentation<\/b>
\nStanley Kunitz<\/p>\n
Since that first morning when I crawled
\ninto the world, a naked grubby thing,
\nand found the world unkind,
\nmy dearest faith has been that this
\nis but a trial: I shall be changed.
\nIn my imaginings I have already spent
\nmy brooding winter underground,
\nunfolded silky powdered wings, and climbed
\ninto the air, free as a puff of cloud
\nto sail over the steaming fields,
\nalighting anywhere I pleased,
\nthrusting into deep tubular flowers.<\/p>\n
It is not so: there may be nectar
\nin those cups, but not for me.
\nAll day, all night, I carry on my back
\nembedded in my flesh, two rows
\nof little white cocoons,
\nso neatly stacked
\nthey look like eggs in a crate.
\nAnd I am eaten half away.<\/p>\n
If I can gather strength enough
\nI’ll try to burrow under a stone
\nand spin myself a purse
\nin which to sleep away the cold;
\nthough when the sun kisses the earth
\nagain, I know I won’t be there.
\nInstead, out of my chrysalis
\nwill break, like robbers from a tomb,
\na swarm of parasitic flies,
\nleaving my wasted husk behind.<\/p>\n
Sir, you with the red snippers
\nin your hand, hovering over me,
\ncasting your shadow, I greet you,
\nwhether you come as an angel of death
\nor of mercy. But tell me,
\nbefore you choose to slice me in two:
\nWho can understand the ways
\nof the Great Worm in the Sky? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hornworm: Autumn Lamentation Stanley Kunitz Since that first morning when I crawled into the world, a naked grubby thing, and found the world unkind, my dearest faith has been that this is but a trial: I shall be changed. In my imaginings I have already spent my brooding winter underground, unfolded silky powdered wings, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whatever"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4976,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4582\/revisions\/4976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}