Here’s what I had to do, per NaPoWriMo.net: “[In a Bop,] a six-line stanza introduces the problem, and is followed by a one-line refrain. The next, eight-line stanza discusses and develops the problem, and is again followed by the one-line refrain. Then, another six-line stanza resolves or concludes the problem, and is again followed by the refrain.”
And here’s what I wrote:
The Egg Case
The kind of praying mantis whose egg case
looks kind of like a putty-colored testicle
wrapped like a glob around a plant stalk
is not our native praying mantis but
an invasive one from China that eats
hummingbirds and butterflies.
Do I freeze this thing or not?
Someone in a monarch Facebook group
posted a side-by-side photo comparison,
and I knew that what’s in my garden is
the brazen one in the video I haven’t watched
where it picks off a hummingbird in flight.
Or, since we’re talking egg cases,
what I mean is that the one in my garden
contains 500 invaders waiting for warmth.
Do I freeze this thing or not?
That person said there really is no moral dilemma
regarding 500 superpredators that aren’t from here.
Who wouldn’t freeze the egg case before it writhes
with babies, those hammer-headed, bug-eyed things
that, like all babies, never asked to be born, had no say
in their location, or the manner in which they live?
Do I freeze this thing or not?
Yeah, freeze it. Sad but necessary, it sounds like.
Also: marvelous poem! I’m really enjoying reading your daily poems again!
Fantastic!
Thank you! And I still haven’t done anything about this.
Procrastination or another reason?
I just hate the thought of killing anything, even if it’s invasive. And I’ve been eye to eye with praying mantids before — they’re cute!