The Hawk Moths Revisited

In the summer white ginger plants,

Thrusting their flowers into the early evening,

Each flower framed by last evening’s flower-corpse,

Launches the ginger-jasmine scent

Beloved of hawk moths

Hawk moths do hummingbird flight,

Hovering above ginger blooms,

Extending, thrusting their long improbable tongues,

Drinking deeply of the plant’s nectar store.

It is possible to catch them in a photograph,

And with much skill and much luck

One may collect forensic proof of their improbable visits.

This summer (2013) the five-spotted yellow moth

Came for the first time. 

I think that it came from Colorado, or Ethiopia,

Or some place far away from Louisiana.

In summers past only pink-spotted apparitions

Had courted the ginger flowers.

The white ginger plants and I

Await next summer’s evening.

We shall be alert to see if we will be sent—

From Colorado or Ethiopia—

Other colored moths to join in the

Hummingbird flight frenzy,

To thrust their long agile tongues

Deeply into the nectar store

Of white ginger flowers.

--August 31, 2013