Once There Was A Nightcrawler Poem by Estrellita Dedel

Once there was a nightcrawler
Burrowing, burrowing, burrowing....
One day, it got sick of feeding on the rotten leaves;
the rotten trunks, the rotten flesh.
When it crawled out of the ground,
it saw a caterpillar chewing on a green leaf,
luscious leaf, green and fresh
The crawler was enthralled with what it saw
for the creature on the tree was just like him
elongated body, segmented, soft
'Why does it not burrow but crawl on the tree? '
the nightcrawler asked itself.
And the nightcrawler made up his mind,
'Off to the tree, I'd climb.'
So the nightcrawler tried to crawl,
crawl its way up to the tree
where the caterpillar is,
where it wants to be.
Determination is all the nightcrawler got,
for it has no legs to help itself
find its way through the dry tree bark.
Days and nights passed hastily,
the night crawler thought it is on its way to its destiny.
When it reached the spot where the caterpillar was
it was almost covered with dust
Its will, its spirit somehow made it survive
it really was a miracle it stayed alive
But the caterpillar can no longer be seen
for it already went inside its cocoon
though not used to the sight, the nightcrawler recognized
that an awakening was about to unravel soon.
To the cocoon, the nightcrawler tried to get in
Alas! there was no way for it to fit in
For in a cocoon is where it should not be
But on the ground which gives rest to the tree
Days and days passed and the caterpillar finally crawled out
Winged; it flew away from the tree
The beautiful wings are what the nightcrawler did see
Staring at the empty cocoon on the branch of the tree
The nightcrawler uttered: 'This does not belong to me.'