Green-Eyed Ladybug...

Seven-Spotted Ladybug

(Coccinella septempunctata)

Not The Green-Eyed Variety, Which Are Hard To Find

(Borrowed from Wikipedia)

I once ruined a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem for my undergrad literature professor Tom Hanks by reciting the lines "and striding / High there" as if they said "and striding / 'hi there!'" as I waved my arm in exaggerated greeting.

He never forgave me. Hence my banishment to these uttermost parts of the earth.

The poem, incidentally, was "The Windhover: To Christ Our Lord," so I'm probably even guilty of blasphemy, which will get me eternally banished to the uttermost parts of outer darkness.

Meanwhile, I'm being punished here in this world. I was singing "Green-Eyed Lady" as a lullaby for my kids the other night, and the song ... somehow ... got transmogrified by them into this kiddie-giddy ruination:

Green-eyed ladybug, lovely ladybug
Strolling slowly towards the sun.
Green-eyed ladybug, ocean ladybug
Soothing every ragin' wave that comes.
Green-eyed ladybug, passions' ladybug,
Dressed in love
She lives for life to be.
Green-eyed ladybug feels life I never see,
Setting suns and lonely lovers free.

Green-eyed ladybug, wind swept ladybug
Rules the night, the waves, the sand.
Green-eyed ladybug, ocean ladybug
Child of nature, friend of man.
Green-eyed ladybug, passions' ladybug,
Dressed in love
She lives for life to be.
Green-eyed ladybug feels life I never see,
Setting suns and lonely lovers free.

Who knew that a ladybug had such power...