Twenty-Three

Write Something Creative

Last week we read Annie Dillard's essay "The Polyphemus Moth." We have been studying identity and have been looking at how stereotypes influence our perception of other people and of ourselves. In Dillard's essay she tells the story of the birth and death of a polyphemus moth that she watched in elementary school. The students were excited to have a cocoon in a jar in their classroom and have the opportunity to watch the creature inside emerge. But the jar was too small for the polyphemus moth, and when it was born it couldn't spread it's wings so they hardened in their crumpled newly born form. The moth crawled and walked and crawled some more. Down the pavement. I've been thinking about jars. The jars we are placed in by society that limit us from spreading our wings. And the jars we put ourselves in as well.

Jars

Looking through the glass the world is obscure
And I am obscured to the world.
I see things darkly, distorted, and that must be
how I appear in reverse.
In this jar no one can see the real me.
It becomes my hiding place. Transparently hiding.
My opaque reflection bares back at me
and I begin to see myself darkly, distorted.