My Poisonous Cousin the Pipevine Swallowtail

come again in summer, larvae ravening the bitter vine

blood-red & brimmed with acid, devil-headed
you know when this present matter to decant

when to fix in silk & all your proteins disassemble

when to rise with codes & poisons all intact, emerge
aswoon for phlox & blue-dick, broom & thistle

any littered ditch or piss, any dumpster’s leaked suspension.

I’ll swan with you anon my kith, anon my Kin-Most-Mimicked, 
arch-destroyer now crossed over. How sweetly hid

your tongue, how plush your dust, your one torn wing―

Copyright © 2023 by Amy Beeder. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 6, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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“I learned about the pipevine swallowtail one night while watching PBS. Battus philenor is an iridescent black and blue butterfly known for sequestering acids from the plants it feeds on as a defense against predators—a strategy so successful that some other butterflies imitate this swallowtail’s colors. I found all this fascinating and, of course, potentially metaphorical: the defensive methods and their imitation, the transformation, and also that, during mating, male pipevine swallowtails offer nuptial gifts derived from the nutritional content of salt, mud, and dung.”
—Amy Beeder