Lucky May Not Be the Word By Dan Plate

I recently filled my garden with spiders, my trees with bats, to clean the yard of undesirables. I’ll be lucky to see even one insect under a stone a month from now.

Lucky may not be the word, seeing as I wanted them gone, but I wonder: If you could choose to lift a rock one early Sunday morning after not seeing the slightest antenna for weeks only to find under it the most perfect beetle, chewing a green leaf — even your very most favorite variety of leaf — in its rare pincers, wouldn’t you repent from your habits and feed them all yourself from then on?

Beetles live under rocks for several reasons: the sun makes their shells burn; the moon makes their feelers stormy; bats can’t fly under stones; spiders prefer grass; and beetles can drink the dark for valuable nutrients.

Are you a beetle?

Would you like to be?

Do you feel especially stony? Does your back feel shellish? Are your fingers brittle? Do they clack on doorknobs? Do you like the dark feel of burrowing?

Have you picked out a special stone, a rock that takes your fancy?

Pick one.

Get a place ready.

Crawl into your lawn.

Listen for ways to get through roots and wires . . . to get below.

© 2015 Dan Plate

Dan Plate grew up in Nigeria among the beetles and beetle-like creatures he writes about. He now lives with his wife and kids in Illinois, near the Mississippi, and teaches writing and philosophy.

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