Fred the Thread – a poem

Dr Robert Hoare reads a poem he wrote about the native moth (Houdinia flexilissima), whose larva is known as Fred the Thread. The poem is from Robert’s book Six-legged Things and Scaly Wings: An anthology of New Zealand insect verse (mostly about moths). When not writing poetry, Robert is an invertebrate systematist with Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research.

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Transcript

DR ROBERT HOARE

I have a little poem about Fred the Thread, which I wrote.

I have a friend (his name is Fred) He’s thinner than a cotton thread His colour is an orange-red He doesn’t feed on jam or bread But Sporadanthus stems instead.

Such narrow tunnels must he tread He needs a hinge inside his head To give his jaws the room to shred The food that is his home and bed And stop himself from dropping dead.

Now when our friend is fully fed And knows the time has come to shed His final skin, a sense of dread begins to filter into Fred: How fast, he thinks, the time has sped! And what a sheltered life he’s led! He hopes he’ll have some outdoor cred And won’t be thought of as inbred.

He sloughs his skin from A to Zed And there’s a pupa in his stead! Three weeks have passed, and it’s incred- ible to see the adult Fred, A mothy person born and bred To look like that on which he’s fed.

He shows an admirable ded- ication to his art, his sed- entary posture leaving ed- ucated mothmen ruby-red, The effort of locating Fred Causing a rush of blood to head Resulting in potential med- ical emergency and bed With cooling drink and favourite Ted Until delirium has fled.

To summarise, he’s Fred the Thread, He’s red and has a hing-ed head His head is used to shred his bed, His bed’s the food on which he’s fed, His bed is red and I am led To think the redness of the Fred Reflects the bedness of the red I mean the redness of the bed – The bed he shreddeth with his head Until the Fred is fully fed And sheds the skin he has to shed To flee the bed that must be fled To lead the life that must be led To woo the wife that must be wed To father further Freds of Thread. Then Fred can smile and drop down dead.

I’ve said the things I wanted said.

Acknowledgements Dr Robert Hoare, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research