ÂÌñÉç

ÂÌñÉç Class of 2018 alum, Julia Scheding, was the recipient of the UC San Diego Stewart Prize in Poetry. One of the poems amongst those submitted for the award is called “The Bug Project ”, it is about ÂÌñÉç’s bug project—a long tradition within ÂÌñÉç’s science curriculum. Read the award-winning poem below: 

The Bug Project 
By Juliana Scheding

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Coleoptera,
Ephemeroptera,
Lepidoptera,
Odonata.

These orders I remember classifying and catching. 

Hymenoptera, my first catch,
Coleoptera, the hesitant approach,
Ephemeroptera, too fleeting to find,
Lepidoptera, requiring the most delicate
perservervation, Odonata, the slow kill.

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Hiking with my mother I was terrified
to find that the first swipe
of my net now harbored
an angry buzzing,
a wasp’s sting.

I was a coward. 
I let my mother reach her hand
-armed only with plaster of paris
and rubbing alcohol in a jar
inside the net.
Gently she coaxed the creature
into the jar, and deftly
she closed the lid.
I aspired to her ruthlessness.

°ä´Ç±ô±ð´Ç±è³Ù±ð°ù²¹:Ìý
Between the verdant drapes
and tangles of grass
I crouched
on the abandoned train tracks
that led to Draper Park.
I stalked a stink beetle.
From behind its matte
black armor, the little warrior
brandished its behind.
This gave me pause,
but I was now determined.
The hunt was mine.

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Though it was Spring
the Mayfly eluded me
until I saw my jealousy
reflected in it’s fine,
needle-pierced wings
as Ford Christensen
brought a perfect
It had spacing that calmed
the most agitated mind, and
species I had sought fruitlessly.

Mr. Bromely’s honeyed praise 
of Ford’s success
bitters my tongue to speak of
to this day.

³¢±ð±è¾±»å´Ç±è³Ù±ð°ù²¹:Ìý
I remember the cocoa powder
of the moth’s wing
rubbed between my thumb and
forefinger. I remember the regret for
ruining the palette
of my collage,
but not the mourning.

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Oh, the chill that went through
me when I saw the dragonfly’s
head move.
I must not have left her
to suffocate humanely
in the jar for long enough.
I yelped, Frankenstein
suddenly aware of what she
had done.

The dragonfly’s eyes 
swallowed her head in
proportion, all the better
to see me with.
But all I could see was
the needle securing her in place,
speared directly through her
thorax.

±á²â³¾±ð²Ô´Ç±è³Ù±ð°ù²¹,Ìý
Coleoptera,
Ephemeroptera,
Lepidoptera,
Odonata.

To understand the world 
I had to make it mine.
I etherized it,
impaled it,
and admired my work.