Posted February 26, 2022 by Sheri Edwards Photography

Freedom Over Parasitoid

Daily Note

Every day, a photograph, a poem. As the invaders continue their evil in a free country, I remember this tarantula hawk wasp climbing a beautiful embroidered curtain- a creature, small— about two inches or less who flits around us until it needs to feed. Then its horrid ways repulse us, much like the political evils and the unprovoked invasion do. The perpetrators reveal their evil ways in their actions, in the frenzy of their feeding on the lives of others.

The picture is from 2011, the year my granddaughter inadvertently rolled on the lawn right over one of these wasps, which bit or stung her— a painful event with quite a bit of red swelling, but she held her strength and smile over the creature who attempted to push her back.

The difference, of course, is that the people of Ukraine chose their leader and the preferred way of life- in a democracy. And the hawks are invading to deny them this.

Today, I share from the Seattle Times again:

Freedom Over Tarantula Hawk
Parasitoid evil
Paralyzes its prey then
plants an egg that eats
it alive, much like the lies
of that which will not be named;
like he who has invaded
people who are free
in a land where people choose
freedom and beauty.
Sheri Edwards
022622 057.365.22
Poetry/Photography

Writing Strategy: Mirror Tanks

I call this poem a Mirror Tanka.
A tanka is a haiku with two addition lines of seven syllables each.
5-7-5-7-7

A mirror tanka continues the pattern in reverse, with the last line of seven syllables in the tanka as the midline of a nine line poem:
5-7-5-7-7-7-5-7-5.

One possibility for its purpose to mirror a concept, which I attempt in my poem.

1094 days of posts in a row