Page 91 - The Irony Board
P. 91
Into the World
Bright red ladybug
On a blade of grass:
Why so tightly hug
When I cannot pass
Without seeing you
Seeming not to mind?
I assumed you knew
I’m not color-blind.
When a beast behaves in ways we judge to be against its interest,
then we call it stupid. That is yet another sort of projection upon our
phylogenetic precursors: mistaking ignorance for incapacity. The
insect evolving vivid coloration has done so as a warning to
predators of its indigestibility; it cannot know that humans, in
exercise of their curiosity, might therefore want to trap or kill it.
Thus, the stupidity here is really on the part of the narrator: he
assumes the ladybug’s inappropriate fearlessness comes from its
belief that it cannot be seen; else how explain its high-contrast
image, scarlet on green?
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