Jeannine Hall Gailey - The Princess Who Loved Insects lyrics

In the brief, beeless January sunlight I climb, bareheaded, through the trees to find a nest of caterpillars, fuzzy and striped that I hide in my kimono sleeves. My mother wails in the darkened house because I won't shave my eyebrows or blacken my teeth, am not anxious about the sun. My father shakes his head, and sighs. Other girls dance with the bu*terflies who flutter through the gardens, brilliant, but they fear the silkworms' writhing, who weave their clothing, silent. In the sea a red dragon dances. No one sees but me and my tiny allies. I know each summer my feet grow longer and more brown as I watch the pupae harden, split and glisten— as I, too, wait to be wrapped, stilled, in layers of silk.