Phosphorescent Caterpillars

Phosphorescent Caterpillars

Dr Abe V Rotor

Caterpillars eating the leaves of ilang-ilang (Cananga odorata), 

at home near La Mesa watershed.

They came - an army of hungry glowing worms,

on a sunset on a tall ilang-ilang tree;

there they hang like lanterns or neon far away,

and in crepuscular light there I could see

a familiar tree traced by its essence in the air,

and now by the phosphorescence from this tree -

Christmas ahead and beyond yet here at hand,

by the glow of these worms reminds me of Thee;

through nature's ways to guard the frail and lowly

through the secret of ephemeral beauty. ~