Her red ochre back shining
The colour of my own hair
Black spots decorate her body
Like the freckles that spatter mine
Her tender insides are sheltered
By gleaming metallic armour
That makes her movements so slow
Her heart so distant
Wait--I see the case opening
My ladybug, on hidden black wings of folded silk,
Soars upward into the blue of the summer sky
And I feel I have just been shown the secret of joy
ladybug climbs a green stem
