Heshkegh Ka’a
Final night time I dreamt the apocalypse. He got here weeping in my
front room. He requested to remain. He requested for a narrative. I performed
him a recording. My useless great-aunt spoke and his chest rose
and fell whereas he listened. She taught us to make a tea with
heshkegh ka’a. Boil the powdered root with water, let it draw
the sickness away. The apocalypse wept till he crammed a mug,
then the kettle, the room. Earlier than we may add the Satan’s Membership
to his tears. I woke. I referred to as my mom. She advised me watch out
with that. Just a little little bit of heshkegh ka’a, the bigger nettles, eases
a sore throat. An excessive amount of burns the tonsils away. I know, she
says, as a result of it occurred to my mom, all she had left have been
the stones they’d held. I inform her I wish to put together it for the
apocalypse, he’s left his tears in my teacup, within the kettle, he’s
flooded my front room. My mom’s quiet then she laughs. Be
cautious she says. Just a little Satan’s Membership will do. That night time the
apocalypse returns, weeping. He asks for an additional sukdu and I
inform him about my grandmother. He holds out his teacup, says
to not fear, he had a tonsillectomy years in the past. I giggle and I
inform him to not fear, the heshkegh ka’a can disappear extra
than tonsils. Once more, he weeps. Once more, he guarantees to return.
Exhibit 10: Polyphemus Moth
Have you ever ever seen a moth drawn to a flame?
What a couple of chrysalis?
Inform me about your reoccurring dream.
Do you ever dream of a canoe?
i.
In spring, earlier than they paint their eyes on wings,
the pupae molts. And molts once more.
5 instances, the pupae turns into an instar,
a course of not dissimilar to residing
inside a star. Matter slackens. Reforms.
In contrast to a star which cycles into its personal collapse
or burns till it’s chilly. After the fifth cycle,
the polyphemus pupae retreats into its brown, silk
nightgown and sleeps the dream I’ve dreamt,
awakens, embodied.
ii.
The polyphemus moth is known as after the cyclops
Polyphemus. The Odyssey depicts him as a violent
large who ate six of Odysseus’s males. In retribution,
Odysseus blinded Polyphemus with a fire-hardened stick.
I think about the pupae, wearing silk and holding
a sooty twig. She darkens a circle of scales
on her hind wings. Within the middle she locations citrine
scales, her false eyes brilliant spots just like the solar’s
darkish spots. The solar’s floor darkens because it cools,
cools as a result of its magnetic area surfaces.
Bear in mind when Harry Kim is stranded within the Delta Quadrant?
What did you assume when he referred to as the ladies sirens? Didn’t it seem like they have been sporting silk? Did you marvel if it was imported?
Inform me your third reminiscence of seeing the celebs.
iii.
The magnetic area inhibits the welling of hotter
gasoline to the solar’s floor. In 1607 Johannes Kepler
used a digital camera obscura to take a look at the solar. Now I
use aluminum foil, a music stand, a tube of wrapping
paper, and an empty reward card to construct a digital camera
like Kepler’s. Totally different supplies, the identical impact.
On his viewing display (I used a poster’s again, its dinosaurs
face down within the carpet) he noticed a darkish spot and thought
Mars moved throughout the solar. In Kepler’s lifetime,
writers wrote that Polyphemus was a proficient lute participant,
a skillful lover.
Not a violent man.
iv.
Somebody’s mild fingers held the thorax
and pinched. The wings unfold.
Somebody’s fingers hid #2 stainless-steel
pins beneath the wings’ main.
The assist, not dissimilar to an exoskeleton,
simply because the moths’ scales are usually not dissimilar
to a dragon’s cover. Every scale safe in its pocket,
somebody left the wings parted.
Though the moth seems to be like it’s, the moth
is just not sunning on a crown of marigolds.
Inform me concerning the final moth.
Not the final moth you noticed.
Inform me the story how the final moth was displayed within the museum and we made a pilgrimage to see her.
Inform me. Inform me the distinction between pilgrimage and wake?
Inform me
concerning the incandescent
mild.
v.
The solar’s magnetic area is just not fixed. Its power
fluctuates, strains tangle, spots transfer throughout the floor.
The grownup polyphemus moth lives for 4 days. Vestigial
mouthed, they don’t eat, however as caterpillars they ate
as much as 86,000 instances their weight. Some moths dwell
like this, encased in acrylic, every coffin a container
that’s not dissimilar to dying. Maybe I’ve it fallacious
Maybe contained in the plastic field, the moth turns into an instar
once more. Maybe inside a climate-controlled setting
the moth is ready for the container to, like Charon,
ferry them to someplace not like right here.
Annie Wenstrup (Dena’ina) is the writer of The Museum of Unnatural Histories (Wesleyan College Press, March 2025). Her poems have been printed in Alaska Quarterly Evaluation, Ecotone, Poetry, and elsewhere. She lives in Fairbanks, Alaska together with her household, the place she serves as a coordinator for Indigenous Nations Poets.
Header photograph of polyphemus moth by bcgrafx, courtesy Shutterstock.
