Empathy Poetry at Paper Poetry

Do Bugs Have Souls?

I rescue spiders, but a potential clothes moth? Nope

Photo by j.b.b.

We’re all killers at heart. Clarence Darrow

But do you have a soul, moth?
Unfortunately I suspect you may.
Galling, considering the costly havoc you wreak.
Spiders feast upon mosquitoes. You, sweaters.

And, so, I swat —
ruefully accepting my sentence
of first-degree murder
and second-degree hypocrisy
evidenced by
my bleeding heart’s illiberal unwillingness
to offer up
a birthing room of wool, cashmere, or silk
to yet one more buff-colored, winged creature
when for others —
already so iridescently blessed,
rainbow splattered –
I tend milkweed, asters and bee balm.

©Jenine Bsharah Baines 2025

Thank you,

Carolyn Hastings

, for a prompt on a topic I’ve pondered often these dark days in the US — where empathy, on the part of those running things, appears threatened with extinction.

Empathy Mirrors

Tagging

Imad

,

Mark Tulin

, and

Iqra Arshad

for their take on the prompt. Meanwhile, thank you, dearest readers, for your support.

Jenine Jeni, Jen, J
Call me what you will, what feels right.
Proper names are poetry in the raw. W.H. Auden

Also feel free to check out my new prose Substack, A Septuagenarian Sings.