Poem by Marcia Beckford
Spread the word! Entomologist Jessica Ware works to inform.
An effort to slow down, and to lessen the gross insect depletion.
In some groups as high as 80% loss sounds like a devastation.
By opening a section of a museum called an insectarium.
A goal at The American Museum of Natural History Insectarium,
People who come for the dinosaur fossils, stay for the insects’.
With interactive exhibits of live, model, and pinned insects
To remind of their diversity of families. Some housed in terrariums.
Ware names vampire flies, fungi, and parasite attackers.
Why the concern? Because Earth needs insects’ offer.
A continuous cycle of nourishment, decay, tidying, pollination.
Or else, less “than three months” survival for humans, the scientists’ prediction.
Jessica’s research to better prepare for the future integrates
A passion begun with a love of dragonflies and culminates
In the study of “400 million years” of life at an insectarium
Where treasured specimens outlive humans who observe them.