the caterpillar inched along,
nearsighted, shocked
face to snout
with a drooling rat
the toothy monster
ate caterpillars for breakfast

but an elephant
stomped the rat flat and let the caterpillar
inch up the trunk
onto the behemoth's head
the caterpillar now felt higher
than all bully rats

but an eagle swooped down and carried
the worm to a tree
the caterpillar spun into
a hardened cocoon
squeezing out to flit
above the earth
with its monarch birthright 

At first,
the omnivorous rat:
the caterpillar's fact
until the elephant
pulverized the rat fact
but the worm's thundering benefactor
still less than the fact
that

every monarch
once
the worm








3.1 7/5