David K. Leff, Essayist, Poet, Lecturer

Lepidoptera Opera (poem)

for Jay Kaplan, naturalist

Names as colorful
as bright, scale-shingled wings,
butterflies delight both eye and ear.

checkerspot, sootywing, ringlet,
orange sulphur, painted lady,
Acadian hairstreak, dreamy duskywing

Speed dating flowers
for sweet nectar, the blossoms pale
beside their stained glass pollinators.

wood-satyr, question mark, comma,
broken-dash, wood nymph, pine elfin,
great spangled fritillary

Fragile as summer,
they float lazily, drift on breezes,
flutter, zigzag, and dodge.

pearly-eye, viceroy, eyed brown,
silver-spotted skipper, pearl crescent,
eastern tailed-blue, spicebush swallowtail

rainbow weaves
of gaudy op art they live but days or weeks
as kinetic prophets of change.

silvery blue, cabbage white,
pepper and salt skipper, tortoiseshell,
red admiral, long dash, dun skipper

I feel childish
erratically running with my net,
but on the chase I won’t grow old.

clouded sulphur, monarch, checkerspot
mourning cloak, bronze copper,
cloudywing, spring azure

Gas Station Eats

Stop for a gourmet meal at a gas station? You might think I have fairly mediocre tastes. But I’ve had some delicious food, rich coffee, and great craft beer recently at Connecticut gas stations. Actually, at former gas stations that have forsaken fuel pumps, car lifts, and pneumatic tools for kitchens, tables, and dishware.

Snack machines filled with candy bars and soda aside, it’s hard to imagine a place less conducive to having a bite to eat than a traditional gas station repair shop with its smells of vehicle exhaust and surfaces stained with lubricants. Even when new, they’re not the most attractive structures regardless of their architectural efficiency in serving the motoring public, but when abandoned they become among the ugliest buildings at roadside, not usually places where you’d ordinarily linger over dinner.