The Moth

Skating the surface of the bulb
is Milly the Moth.
Her white form fascinates me
as it dodges the heat of the glass
with constant fluttering of wings,
incessant movement.

You grab a broom,
intent on killing Milly.
“Don’t!” I cry out.
“That moth has a name.”

Milly will only live a week or two.
But whichever moth
is attracted to that glowing filament in future,
it will be Milly also.

For all that short lifespan,
there’s a longevity to sameness
Even if you kill it,
there’s still forever.

 

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in That, Dalhousie Review and North Dakota Quarterly with work upcoming in Qwerty, Chronogram and failbetter.

Ira Joel Haber was born and lives in Brooklyn. He is a sculptor, painter, writer, book dealer, photographer and teacher. His work has been seen in numerous group shows both in the USA and Europe and he has had 9 one man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum,The Albright-Knox Art Gallery & The Allen Memorial Art Museum. Since 2006 His paintings, drawings, photographs and collages have been published in over 230 on line and print magazines. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Creative Artists Public Service Grant (CAPS), two Pollock-Krasner grants, two Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grants and, in 2010, he received a grant from Artists’ Fellowship Inc. in 2017 & 2018 he received the Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA artist-in-residence grant.