green squiggler

this afternoon i was looking out the window enjoying the beautiful weather about to start on some homework when i decided indoors was not where i wanted to be. so i gathered the essentials: articles to read, highlighter, keys, phone, and a water bottle, and kissed my sweet boy who was taking a nap. the entire way plodding down the stairs in my flip-flops i was thinking how nice it would be to lay on a blanket in the grass, rather than on the stiff metal bench i originally had in mind. of course i was undecided on whether or not to return for the blanket until i reached the very bottom of the stairs. then i decided it would really be worth it to have the blanket, so i turned around to climb back up to the fourth floor (feel the burn!) to retrieve it. i kissed my sweet boy again, offered him a nap in the great outdoors which he sleepily declined, and ventured out into the sun.

i lounged about and read on my colorful quilt all about health care, liberation psychology, being a radical therapist, and a post-capitalist world (that's what happens when you take Radical Social Action). while i was thoroughly engrossed struggling through the second article some small moving object to my left on the blanket caught my eye. it was a lime green caterpillar squiggling on over towards me with great speed. squiggling might not be the correct term for how he was getting around, but i feel like it fits. i got the little guy to climb on my papers and i put him back in the grass to my left and watched him romp around in the grass blades. i read a little bit more before i realized i was way more interested in the green squiggler. i found him making his way towards me again so i gathered the little green buddy, looked him in his green green eyes, and considered taking him home as a pet, but figured he would like the wild better, so i gently set him in the grass to the right of the blanket this time so he could continue on his journey without my interference.

fast forward to the fourth and final article i needed to read through. i was contemplating just heading inside and saving the rest of the reading for tomorrow and happened to look over to my right just as a brown and red bird was lifting her head out of the grass with... the bright green squiggler dangling helplessly from her brown beak. no doubt it was him. my green little friend. he was a goner. he would have been much happier being alive even if it meant living in a mason jar of wilting greenery and sticks. he could have morphed into a beautiful butterfly right before my very eyes. but instead he was an early dinner. how tragic!? it all happened so fast and just as i was realizing what was actually taking place, another bird swooped in next to the killer to see or maybe steal her winnings and she raced off to the trees to enjoy her feast in solitude.

poor little buddy.