Poem: "The Ancient Animal Symbols"
This poem came out of the July 5, 2022 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from and this discussion about moth eyes. It also fills the "quiet" square in my 7-1-22 card for the Body Parts Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with . It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "The Child Who Survived," so read that first or this won't make as much sense.
"The Ancient Animal Symbols"
[Evening of Saturday, May 9, 2015]
Everyone was pleasantly tired
after the day of tie-dyeing T-shirts.
Tolli declared a movie night
and snuggled up with Simon.
Shiv claimed a space in
the middle of the couch.
Luci piled in next to him,
and she had the bowl of
Szechuan Chile Popcorn,
which brought Dairinne
stampeding after it.
Quickly Shiv crossed
his legs so she wouldn't
stomp on his balls.
Molly sat down on
his other side with
the Tropical Popcorn.
Well, at least he was
all set for the snacks.
"What are we watching?"
Shiv asked with his mouth full.
"The Aftermoth," said Tolli.
"It's good for poking fun at."
Shiv felt pretty sure that
whatever Tolli's idea of
that was, it was different
from what he'd grown up with.
That was probably for the best.
His childhood had sucked.
The television flickered on,
but instead of music, there was
a weird fluttery, whispery sound.
White text scrolled on a black screen:
Wild, dark times rumble toward us,
and the prophet who wishes to write
a new apocalypse will have to invent
entirely new beasts, beasts so terrible
that the ancient animal symbols of
St. John will seem like cooing doves
and fluttering cupids in comparison.
Slowly the screen brightened
to show a cloud of brown moths
swarming around a porch light.
The scene was oddly quiet
with just the moths active.
A screen door banged open,
and a teen boy hurried out
to wield a can of bug spray.
Shiv had some fond memories
of assaulting wasps that way,
one of the few forms of violence
that people had generally condoned.
A motherly voice summoned the boy
back into the quaint country house.
The narrator's voice took over.
The rise of the modern superbugs is
a classic case of the pesticide treadmill.
The view swept over a field covered
in hungry bugs munching the crops,
with gross closeups of their mouths.
A pesticide application typically kills most -
but not quite all - of the targeted pests.
Then a greenish cloud floated over
the scene, eerily like a death field,
and the insects began to drop.
One bug, however, ignored
the onslaught and kept eating.
The camera panned over another.
The two bugs came together and
one climbed on top of the other.
Shiv didn't really need to see
how bugs got their action.
Of those that survive, some
will pass on genetic traits
of pesticide resistance to
their offspring, gradually
leading to a population
more and more resistant.
A fast-forward film showed
the bugs humping at high speed,
which was suddenly hilarious.
It all happened in silence,
without even music behind it.
They laid eggs, which hatched
into voracious baby bugs that
devoured the crops even under
another evil green cloud.
"That's true," Edison piped.
"Evolution means that pesticides
just produce stronger insects. You
couldn't design a more effective way
of enhancing pests if you tried."
"That's why Aidan only uses
organic methods," said Molly.
"They work with nature, not
against it, so they don't tend
to produce such distortions."
"Yeah, Italy is the same,
most farmers don't want
pesticides anywhere near
their grapes or their olives,"
said Halley. "They claim
that it spoils the terroir."
Luci nodded. "Some places
in Asia feel the same about
tea," she said. "I agree."
Meanwhile the movie had
gone back to the porch light,
under which lay a scatter of
dead moths with their legs up.
One of the moths twitched,
and then so did another.
They moved together
and then began to hump,
wings flapping in excitement.
Who knew that it would all end,
not with a bang, but with a flutter.
Shiv shoved more popcorn
in his mouth and watched
as the carnage began.
A plague of moths arrived
and people tried to fight them.
There were flyswatters and
water hoses and, of course,
more of the green bug fog.
More moths flew in
to replace the fallen.
Clinging to the windows,
their undersides looked
oddly almost human.
The even creepier part was
their eyes shining red-orange
like tiny coals in the reflected light
as they silently studied the people.
They were just plain brown moths,
but as they moved their little heads
with their sharp-pointed snouts
and glowing red eyes, they
looked quite monsterful.
Luci squeezed Shiv
hard enough that
it made him eep.
"Sorry, Shiv-ya,"
she said. "I am just
reminded of legends
about giant insects."
That was the last thing
Shiv needed to hear.
Still he said, "It's okay,
just don't squeeze so hard."
She leaned against him
instead, and that was fine.
Watching several people
attack a swarm, Tolli and
Simon shook their heads.
"Their strategy is pathetic,"
Tolli said. "Really pathetic."
"I would say their strategy
is nonexistent," Simon said.
They spent a good ten minutes
picking apart the poor choices.
Shiv helped himself to some
of Molly's Tropical Popcorn and
watched them instead of the movie.
When the moths started breaking
windows to get inside, people tried
to fight them off with brooms.
"You know, they'd do better
using fans," Shiv muttered.
"Moths don't like high winds,
I used to keep them out of
my attic bedroom that way."
"Now that's a much better idea,"
Tolli approved, beaming at him.
Of course, the moths didn't
stay that small forever.
The movie was surprisingly
subtle about showing how
the moths got bigger over time,
framing them against things
for the size comparison.
First they grew to thumb size,
then palm size, then hand size.
They started to look more like
birds than moths by then.
The glowing red eyes got
bigger and scarier too.
The premise was daffy,
the characters were dumb,
but the damn aftermoths
were legitimately creepy.
Then the hip-high moths
unfurled their hands and
started opening doors
to get at people inside.
"Oh hell no," Shiv said,
staring at the screen in horror.
"A great big fuck no to that!
I'd be making buzz saws
out of all the metal in reach."
"I could swat them with silk!"
Luci said, clutching him close.
"Wait, if the moths have hands,
they may not be dumb insects
anymore," Molly argued. "You
have to weigh the possibility
of sentience into your strategy."
"No, no I don't," said Shiv.
"If I see giant fucking moths
breaking into a building, they
are dead moths. Screw ethics."
"Well, what about that team
of scientists trying to gengineer
giant bats to fight the aftermoths?"
Halley said. "That's not ethical either."
"Kid, when it's war, sometimes ethics
go out the window," Tolli said with a sigh.
"We try not to let that happen, but folks
with their backs against a wall just
aren't picky about solutions."
That turned into a debate
as he and Molly bickered
over whether and when
to downgrade ethics in
favor of sheer survival.
Luci sat back and sniped
with Buddhist quotes.
Shiv wasn't sure who
was right, in the end.
Yeah, he was all for
dicing the damn moths,
but he had also seen
how shitty life got when
people didn't care much
about ethics anymore.
By that time, though,
the aftermoths were up to
human size, played by actors
in truly terrible makeup, and it
became impossible to carry on
a serious conversation about them.
Shiv had to lay off the popcorn
just so he wouldn't choke laughing.
When the first red beams sliced
across the screen, he whooped.
"Laser Eyes!" he said. "Moths
with sure-as-shit Laser Eyes!"
"Completely implausible,"
Edison said. "Moths have
compound eyes. You couldn't
get coherent beams from them,
you'd get more like disco balls."
"I don't know, their whole anatomy
is different," Halley said. "If you --"
And that was the last word that Shiv
actually understood of that discussion,
plus he was laughing so hard he
missed half what they said anyhow.
Everyone else joined in, picking
one side or another to volley
whatever arguments they could.
The only one quiet was Dairinne, and
that was because she'd fallen asleep.
By the end of the movie, Shiv was
breathless and even tireder than when
he'd flopped onto the couch, but it was
more fun than watching alone at home.
"That movie was so corny that we
could have popped it," he said,
scooping up the last handful
of tropical mix from its bowl.
"Yeah, it was all spooky digs
about ancient animal symbols,"
said Luci. "I've always found
those old legends scary, but it's
hard to take them seriously when
the actors' antennae are falling off!"
"True, but that's what makes this
a classic bad apocalypse flick,"
said Tolli. "If they're realistic,
they're too depressing. Making
it corny keeps it entertaining."
"Okay, good point," Shiv said.
He'd seen some really bleak ones,
and they weren't his idea of fun.
Halley yawned. "Just wait,"
thon said. "Tomorrow we can
watch Moonshatter. That's
even more fun to pick apart,
because astronomy."
Shiv found himself
looking forward to it.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its notes will appear separately.
"The Ancient Animal Symbols"
[Evening of Saturday, May 9, 2015]
Everyone was pleasantly tired
after the day of tie-dyeing T-shirts.
Tolli declared a movie night
and snuggled up with Simon.
Shiv claimed a space in
the middle of the couch.
Luci piled in next to him,
and she had the bowl of
Szechuan Chile Popcorn,
which brought Dairinne
stampeding after it.
Quickly Shiv crossed
his legs so she wouldn't
stomp on his balls.
Molly sat down on
his other side with
the Tropical Popcorn.
Well, at least he was
all set for the snacks.
"What are we watching?"
Shiv asked with his mouth full.
"The Aftermoth," said Tolli.
"It's good for poking fun at."
Shiv felt pretty sure that
whatever Tolli's idea of
that was, it was different
from what he'd grown up with.
That was probably for the best.
His childhood had sucked.
The television flickered on,
but instead of music, there was
a weird fluttery, whispery sound.
White text scrolled on a black screen:
Wild, dark times rumble toward us,
and the prophet who wishes to write
a new apocalypse will have to invent
entirely new beasts, beasts so terrible
that the ancient animal symbols of
St. John will seem like cooing doves
and fluttering cupids in comparison.
Slowly the screen brightened
to show a cloud of brown moths
swarming around a porch light.
The scene was oddly quiet
with just the moths active.
A screen door banged open,
and a teen boy hurried out
to wield a can of bug spray.
Shiv had some fond memories
of assaulting wasps that way,
one of the few forms of violence
that people had generally condoned.
A motherly voice summoned the boy
back into the quaint country house.
The narrator's voice took over.
The rise of the modern superbugs is
a classic case of the pesticide treadmill.
The view swept over a field covered
in hungry bugs munching the crops,
with gross closeups of their mouths.
A pesticide application typically kills most -
but not quite all - of the targeted pests.
Then a greenish cloud floated over
the scene, eerily like a death field,
and the insects began to drop.
One bug, however, ignored
the onslaught and kept eating.
The camera panned over another.
The two bugs came together and
one climbed on top of the other.
Shiv didn't really need to see
how bugs got their action.
Of those that survive, some
will pass on genetic traits
of pesticide resistance to
their offspring, gradually
leading to a population
more and more resistant.
A fast-forward film showed
the bugs humping at high speed,
which was suddenly hilarious.
It all happened in silence,
without even music behind it.
They laid eggs, which hatched
into voracious baby bugs that
devoured the crops even under
another evil green cloud.
"That's true," Edison piped.
"Evolution means that pesticides
just produce stronger insects. You
couldn't design a more effective way
of enhancing pests if you tried."
"That's why Aidan only uses
organic methods," said Molly.
"They work with nature, not
against it, so they don't tend
to produce such distortions."
"Yeah, Italy is the same,
most farmers don't want
pesticides anywhere near
their grapes or their olives,"
said Halley. "They claim
that it spoils the terroir."
Luci nodded. "Some places
in Asia feel the same about
tea," she said. "I agree."
Meanwhile the movie had
gone back to the porch light,
under which lay a scatter of
dead moths with their legs up.
One of the moths twitched,
and then so did another.
They moved together
and then began to hump,
wings flapping in excitement.
Who knew that it would all end,
not with a bang, but with a flutter.
Shiv shoved more popcorn
in his mouth and watched
as the carnage began.
A plague of moths arrived
and people tried to fight them.
There were flyswatters and
water hoses and, of course,
more of the green bug fog.
More moths flew in
to replace the fallen.
Clinging to the windows,
their undersides looked
oddly almost human.
The even creepier part was
their eyes shining red-orange
like tiny coals in the reflected light
as they silently studied the people.
They were just plain brown moths,
but as they moved their little heads
with their sharp-pointed snouts
and glowing red eyes, they
looked quite monsterful.
Luci squeezed Shiv
hard enough that
it made him eep.
"Sorry, Shiv-ya,"
she said. "I am just
reminded of legends
about giant insects."
That was the last thing
Shiv needed to hear.
Still he said, "It's okay,
just don't squeeze so hard."
She leaned against him
instead, and that was fine.
Watching several people
attack a swarm, Tolli and
Simon shook their heads.
"Their strategy is pathetic,"
Tolli said. "Really pathetic."
"I would say their strategy
is nonexistent," Simon said.
They spent a good ten minutes
picking apart the poor choices.
Shiv helped himself to some
of Molly's Tropical Popcorn and
watched them instead of the movie.
When the moths started breaking
windows to get inside, people tried
to fight them off with brooms.
"You know, they'd do better
using fans," Shiv muttered.
"Moths don't like high winds,
I used to keep them out of
my attic bedroom that way."
"Now that's a much better idea,"
Tolli approved, beaming at him.
Of course, the moths didn't
stay that small forever.
The movie was surprisingly
subtle about showing how
the moths got bigger over time,
framing them against things
for the size comparison.
First they grew to thumb size,
then palm size, then hand size.
They started to look more like
birds than moths by then.
The glowing red eyes got
bigger and scarier too.
The premise was daffy,
the characters were dumb,
but the damn aftermoths
were legitimately creepy.
Then the hip-high moths
unfurled their hands and
started opening doors
to get at people inside.
"Oh hell no," Shiv said,
staring at the screen in horror.
"A great big fuck no to that!
I'd be making buzz saws
out of all the metal in reach."
"I could swat them with silk!"
Luci said, clutching him close.
"Wait, if the moths have hands,
they may not be dumb insects
anymore," Molly argued. "You
have to weigh the possibility
of sentience into your strategy."
"No, no I don't," said Shiv.
"If I see giant fucking moths
breaking into a building, they
are dead moths. Screw ethics."
"Well, what about that team
of scientists trying to gengineer
giant bats to fight the aftermoths?"
Halley said. "That's not ethical either."
"Kid, when it's war, sometimes ethics
go out the window," Tolli said with a sigh.
"We try not to let that happen, but folks
with their backs against a wall just
aren't picky about solutions."
That turned into a debate
as he and Molly bickered
over whether and when
to downgrade ethics in
favor of sheer survival.
Luci sat back and sniped
with Buddhist quotes.
Shiv wasn't sure who
was right, in the end.
Yeah, he was all for
dicing the damn moths,
but he had also seen
how shitty life got when
people didn't care much
about ethics anymore.
By that time, though,
the aftermoths were up to
human size, played by actors
in truly terrible makeup, and it
became impossible to carry on
a serious conversation about them.
Shiv had to lay off the popcorn
just so he wouldn't choke laughing.
When the first red beams sliced
across the screen, he whooped.
"Laser Eyes!" he said. "Moths
with sure-as-shit Laser Eyes!"
"Completely implausible,"
Edison said. "Moths have
compound eyes. You couldn't
get coherent beams from them,
you'd get more like disco balls."
"I don't know, their whole anatomy
is different," Halley said. "If you --"
And that was the last word that Shiv
actually understood of that discussion,
plus he was laughing so hard he
missed half what they said anyhow.
Everyone else joined in, picking
one side or another to volley
whatever arguments they could.
The only one quiet was Dairinne, and
that was because she'd fallen asleep.
By the end of the movie, Shiv was
breathless and even tireder than when
he'd flopped onto the couch, but it was
more fun than watching alone at home.
"That movie was so corny that we
could have popped it," he said,
scooping up the last handful
of tropical mix from its bowl.
"Yeah, it was all spooky digs
about ancient animal symbols,"
said Luci. "I've always found
those old legends scary, but it's
hard to take them seriously when
the actors' antennae are falling off!"
"True, but that's what makes this
a classic bad apocalypse flick,"
said Tolli. "If they're realistic,
they're too depressing. Making
it corny keeps it entertaining."
"Okay, good point," Shiv said.
He'd seen some really bleak ones,
and they weren't his idea of fun.
Halley yawned. "Just wait,"
thon said. "Tomorrow we can
watch Moonshatter. That's
even more fun to pick apart,
because astronomy."
Shiv found himself
looking forward to it.
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its notes will appear separately.