Insect footsteps in a puddle

Re-Inhabiting Conservation: Bringing Wildlife Closer to Home
GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, Pennsylvania, USA, 2026

Illustrated poetry in upcoming Creature Conserve exhibition, from May 22 to July 26 2026

Sneak peek of my illustrated poem Insect footsteps in a puddle

This narrative poem is an invitation in the world of insect dreams.

It takes us through hidden and overlooked corners where human activity has altered the landscape and caused destruction and pollution, but where it is not too late yet. Insects find a way into these damaged landscapes and make it their home. They swim in temporary water holes created by heavy trucks in the mud, they cross over puddles, glossy from oil spills, and somehow manage in these rhythms of pollution. At least, for now.

This poem undoes boundaries of us versus them, of human versus nonhuman places, and considers that any environment, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is part of our shared home with other critters. It is for this very reason that an attentiveness and care for our shared home can be expressed through the smallest insect, who lives a worthy life in strength, fragility, and intimate interconnection with our “human” world. Thinking about the dream world of insects is also an invitation to start dreaming about insects. What’s more, in a world with drastically declining insects numbers, it is a call to not let them become only a dream.