Five - Senses Poem
Anger
Anger is a shade of red that burns through you.
Its sounds like a rumbling train,
And tastes bitter like stomach acid.
It smells like hot steaming lava.
Anger looks like a rabid dog foaming at the mouth
It makes me feel ravenous.
Anger is the blue flame on a fire.
The sound is like an exploding tanker,
And it tastes like burning heartburn in your throat.
It smells like sweat on a boxer.
It looks like heat on a humid day
And feels like a bleeding wound.
Anger is the color of a red hot poker.
It sounds like pinecones popping in a fire
And tastes like a fiery pepper from the south.
Anger smells like hot coals in a fire pit.
It looks like a person going on no sleep for three days.
Anger makes me feel trapped.
Anger is the feeling that rips society apart.
1. I dreamed I was an alligator
Eating a poodle
2. In my dream I was picking apples from a tree
When a lawnmower started chasing me
I heard the machine chewing up the helpless blades of grass
Finally it engulfed me
1. I wish I were a pepperoni pizza
Filling up a stomach
2. I wish I had a pile of money
As big as a room
So I could pay to
Play all day
1. I used to be a big fat slob,
But now I am a sleek, trim machine of a man.
2. I used to be a beautiful towering oak tree in the forest
But now I am a creatively designed cabinet.
1. Kindness is for people
Who can’t get along.
2. Stars are baseballs
Hit out of the atmosphere.
This is a Dankasaurus.
It lives in doorways, dungeons, driveways, and Dairy Queens.
A Dankasaurus eats dogs, democrats, donuts, and diphtheria.
It likes drowning, dallying, drifting, and dreaming.
It dances, draws, drives, dangles, and depresses people.
Last night a Dankasaurus dropped by and dipped his feet in my pool.
I’m so sorry
I’ve crashed
Your car
Which was in the garage.
The one
You just bought
For a retirement
Present to yourself.
Forgive me,
It was to fast
To dark
And to cool.
Bright, sunny
Running, living, sunburned
Animals, awake, criminals, roaming
Sleeping, snoring, partying
Dark, infinite
Night
Butterfly Movements in Aztalan State Park
By: Edward Bailey
The butterfly activity in Aztalan State Park, located in Jefferson County, was quite intriguing on the afternoon of September 24, 2000. The temperature on that Sunday afternoon was around 50°F, and it was rather breezy. When I entered the large field at 1:00 P.M., I had trouble spotting very many butterflies. Then I had difficulty keeping up with the first couple that I came across. After that, I spotted a small, whitish butterfly fluttering about. The wingspan was between roughly one and two inches. It is possibly a cabbage white, but I am not positive. It flew around for awhile when I first noticed it. The actual flight was pretty erratic. This butterfly would dart off with what seemed like little particular direction. It turned frequently and formed loops in its flight pattern. I did not find much predictable behavior as to the physical pattern of flight. The time of being airborne was pretty consistent, however. Usually, it would stay in flight for around 30-40 seconds. This did not vary too much. There were really only two types of places where this butterfly stopped. It either stopped on blades of grass and ceased movement, or it halted on flowers. The flowers were about four to six inches tall and were purple in color. The butterfly moved quite rapidly on the flowers, but not at all on the grass. Most of the stops that the butterfly made were similar to each other in aspects like the flight speed, the landing, and the type of plants landed on. From my other observations, most of the other butterflies were comparable in flight behavior and stopping behavior.
From my observations, the butterfly had two main purposes in its movements. The first was food intake. The one butterfly I watched did all of its eating at one time. I counted 26 consecutive stops at flowers at one point in observation. These feedings typically lasted between 20 and 30 seconds. The second main purpose was to stop and rest. At one point, the butterfly remained motionless on a blade of grass for near twenty minutes. I was led to believe that this motionless is also a defense mechanism. When the wings were open, the butterfly appeared white, but with the wings closed and on the grass, the butterfly appeared green. It was difficult to keep track of at some points. When I got closer, I could also spot an eyespot on the side. The camouflage color and eyespot was what made me think that the stopping on the grass was a resting period, as it would not have to worry about predators while resting. There were several factors that could have had an influence on the butterfly’s activities. As I mentioned before, it was quite breezy on my observation day. When the wind disturbed the plant that the butterfly was on, it was time to get up and fly again. The presence of other butterflies in the area also might affect its behavior. Once another butterfly flew close to the one I was observing, and the two began to flutter around each other for several seconds. The flight was rather frenzied at this point. This possibly could have been some type of mating procedure, or a fight between males. I know that I disturbed some butterflies when I was running around trying to keep up with my subject.
At the beginning of my project, I did not really have a firm grasp on what I was doing. By the end, I felt much more comfortable out among nature. I was making more quality observations once I knew what I was doing. I learned a lot about butterfly behavior just through this simple study. I didn’t realize how much time butterflies spend resting on the grass. Before, I thought that they spend more time in the air than they really do. Also, I was kind of ignorant as to what butterflies eat. Now I know that they consume nectar from flowers. Probably the most important thing that I learned from doing this project is how to approach nature when attempting to observe it. Slow, gentle movements, silence, and patience definitely get much better results than noisy, impatient, and abrupt actions.