Press Releases

If the curators knew 

I, a moth, 

was in the Van Gogh room 

at the Musée d’Orsay 

in Paris, 

they’d be shocked! 

But what do they expect— 

I love light 

and I’m particularly 

attracted to a painting 

of stars—globs of light 

reflected in a river. 

I’ve sat on top of these yellow blobs 

and survived somehow 

though I can feel 

the heat of these stars 

right through the paint. 

Light bulbs are cold by comparison 

though I’m not singed by Van Gogh. 

Somehow I’m transformed 

and waves of ecstasy 

wander through my wings. 

I rest on Van Gogh’s stars all night 

and in the morning 

I flit to a cottage 

with a voluptuous garden 

and settle on a deep blue iris. 

The tourists think 

I’m part of the painting. 

I laugh. 

I’m just a moth 

with grand taste.