If you’ve ever raised tomatoes, you’re likely to have seen these guys. Usually, you first see a bunch of black detritus under your ravaged plants. They merge so perfectly into the tomato leaves, that it takes awhile to find them. Stanley Kunitz was a renowned gardener as well as a poet, and wrote a Hornworm poem in two parts, Summer and Autumn. Here’s the summer part:
Hornworm:
Summer Reverie
Here in caterpillar country
I learned how to survive
by pretending to be a dragon. Continue reading “The hornworm’s summer”