II

An Educated Caterpillar
     Haha--I'll become a butterfly? Old wives' tales, sir. Mere illusions. Fairy tales for children. It has been scientifically determined that there are only innards in us caterpillars, and no wings. No colored wings. One passes and that's the end.

Stink Bug
I, sir, can be happy with my children. They are healthy and talented, they know their way in the world, and finally, they stink. Praise God, you'll never lose one of 'em.

Phone Book
Poems! Such a thin little pamphlet. And this they also call a book? Please!

Old Relic
Oh, well, in my youth, they were different times. Back then, we ashes grew to the sky. And the grass? Back then, the grass grew taller than I am now...Mind you, that was grass. But nowadays!

Dandelion Seed
     I'm flying! I'm soaring! I'm ascending to the clouds! I finally know why I was put on this earth!

Head Louse
     What is underneath us, far down and deep where our probosces do not reach? Nothing. Only stone. Unliving and useless matter.

Beetle
     There is one natural law. One morality. One wisdom: Be firm!

Snail
     Ants are rabble. For example, they don't even believe in the Great Gastropod that created the earth!

Flowerpot
     I'm just a piece of pottery? Me? Look at what I've grown!

Rooster
     It's still not day. I haven't said so yet.

Rusty Nail
     Haha, I got him right in the foot! And he still calls me useless!

Tree
     Good perspective: for that one must grow tall.

Sparrow
     Oh, sure, the nightingale! There's more of us sparrows!

Stump
     And why don't they say "lofty stump" too?

Excrement
     If only I had wings! Then, young man, I'd come across differently!

Fox
     Everything living is divided into three parts: enemies, competition, and prey.

Crane
     What, cruelty? The struggle for existence, sir, is always legal.

Millipede
     Well, I'd just like to know...if there are millipedes on other planets.

Bedbug
     I have not lived in vain... I leave behind me an array of descendants... And all bedbugs! Bedbugs, every one!

Weed
     Lofty tree, bah! Wait and see what will become of me in five hundred years!

Dormouse
     There are three kinds of creatures: dormice, animals, and plants.

Flower
     I smell nice? I attract insects? Ah, you see, I know nothing about this!

Toad
     Progress? Naturally, there is progress. For example, I used to be a mere tadpole.

Important Fly
     Haven't you heard? That's the fly who sat on the crown of a king!

LN 19 June 1932