My son caught a moth
large and beautiful
soft brown velvet wings with white paisley "eyes"
and chenille antennas

He put it in a jar with leaves and water
and a few branches
but it frantically beat those lovely wings
in a desperate staccato

So we covered the jar to let it rest
but the muffled cadence
of its endless efforts to escape
broke my son's heart

In the morning he let it go
and put the jar amidst games and papers
on the bottom shelf
of the bookcase in the living room

Then we looked in our Natural History book
and found that once it gained its wings
the moth did not eat again - ever
It lived only to lay its eggs and died in three days

Months later I found the jar while cleaning
and there in the bottom were the tiny hatched larvae
which, without making a sound,
had died of starvation