Natur-ology
From Tall Trees Short Stories: vol 21. Woodwide Works, 2021.
Oh butterfly, must you tax me?
Purple pattern with a wash of white,
Dashing through pools of shade and light,
Nature’s angels, spiriting from sight.
That’s lepidopterology!
Bird of wonder, you crossed the sea,
Rare passerine, so pleased to perch;
A viewing army, near the church,
Dazzling nature, all focussed to search.
Fellows in ornithology!
Myriad insects, fly to bee,
Much more than carnage smearing our screen,
Or dose of antihistamine;
Pollination for nature’s canteen.
Life-giving entomology!
Sharing our genes by some degree,
Four-chambered hearts, on four legs with fur,
Prowling king, or perhaps scared to stir,
Nature’s thriving entrepreneur.
The mirror of mammalogy!
That tiny wasp will need a key,
But not its home of ridge and angle;
Apple, artichoke, and spangle,
Nature’s galls and alien tangle.
Mutating cecidology!
Final frontier, perhaps a PhD,
A hidden world, right under your feet,
Bejewelling litter, there to greet,
Be wary though, of what you can eat.
Engineering mycology!
Scarce they would be, without the tree;
Neither lepi, orni, or ento,
No mamma, ceci, or myco.
I wonder why so few have come to know,
The science of silvology!
Read more poetry at www.gabrielhemery.com