In memory of Walter Spitz, 1959-2004.     

I. Histogenesis

Inhaled air and the expansion of the muscles in the thorax split the exoskeleton near the apex of the pupa.

Sharp little birds of pain hop across the body’s snow. Sleep rustles faintly in the reeds of the pond. They sway, but do not bend.

The little birds of pain hop diligently across the body’s frozen pond. Full winter moon. Its pale gaze. In its cocoon, the diapaused silkworm is waiting for better days, as we all do.

When development is complete, a seam along the front of the pupal exoskeleton is digested by enzymes, then ruptured by the imago pushing outward with its head and thorax.

And you are this still body, pond, pupa, whose organs have dissolved into an enzymatic soup. You have no brain to pray that the next series of genes activates correctly to put you back together. You save your breath.

Animal tissues take their first form when the blastula cells, arising from ---------------
differentiate into three layer germs: the ectoderm, mesoderm, and ------------------
Through further cell development, or histogenesis, groups of cells grow into ----------

At noon in winter, the little birds of pain flutter above the frozen pond. Hanging from a bulrush, a diapaused pupa is waiting for better days, as we all do. Stretched on your back, you are a chrysalis. All your organs dissolved into an enzymatic soup, do you still know how to pray that the next series of genes will activate properly to reassemble you? From wherever you stand, the beeping dials sound like winter ravens flickering above a marsh. Swooping firecrackers. Fire. Ire. Crackers / hackers.

Upside down, you hang still from a dead reed. With a little luck, the sparrows will overlook an easy meal.

. . . limp, yet spectacular in its garden-fresh beauty . . .

imaginal disks            histogenesis(tissue formation)
             chitin
the imago

Pain’s little fish nuzzle the underbelly of the ice. From above, they are flickering black lights, a dance of meaningful void. You watch them. Your toes go numb. A long way from spring.