Spring is inching her way into Central Ohio. The air is warmer, the sun is shining more directly. New spring is just around the corner, and with it the arrival of our many insect friends. Here is my tribute to them, the less visible but essential members of our earth family.

For the Smaller Sons and Daughters

A remembrance at twilight

for the beasts that inhabit the air

fireflies lighting their soft lamps

cicadas hissing mysteriously in trees

ancient mosquitoes fat with blood

delicate honeybees sleeping in the hive.

Sweet creatures of the air surround us

lazily drifting, winging earnestly

they pass briefly, we do not attend

their unremarkable death or time.

Wings of the bold dragonfly

bumblebee’s aggressive launch

curious hovering of wasps

placid loft of butterflies:

creatures of the moon and sun

they speak to us in touch and flight

their message is the same, the one:

let God be honored in our brief hour and lives.