moth

my wings are breaking against the walls the earth a horizon my children will be sweet promises drifting in the stillness a beat of quiet in the tumult of my passing they will not know me and the chaos i shed are the same powder scale the same ink-sky tongue they carry in the shifting of their cells their soft weightless sigh i will beat myself against this glass until i am over and they will watch me and i will watch them grow and i will leave this darkness in the reflection of the moon pocket of shadow and it will not be an easy death they will glide on and they will not mourn me they will not know the pain of this night endless and cold my wings are breaking but i have birthed life in this chamber and when i die my wings will still and i will learn to freefall with my children at last

This poem was inspired by the discovery of a scientific experiment where moths were taken to, and bred in, space. The research found that the moths originally taken from earth never adapted to life in zero gravity, but their children, born in space, did.