The Flying Spots

English people say ladybird
That I think is absurd
But these Brits are conservative
Uptight, maybe
And they are polite

Americans say ladybug
Naturally outspoken
But they are so generous
And like to hug

I wish they would disregard
The naming games
And simply call me
The flying-spots

Dual names do vex me so
I moved elsewhere
To Boston and Ohio
Where those folks do really care

Since then the lodgings
In other States I have
Accepted their gardens
As my very own

And to baffle my foes I lash out
With my swindle
Faking dead gives me a kick

Now kids
Name for me other places
In the USA
Where I freely roam
In their gardens
And love to prey

Do any of them
Have borders by the sea
You are correct I must agree

So what! I might be the bug
Of aerospace
Flying around is no disgrace

I parade my dicey dots in a line
On the jacket on my back
My good luck charm
I have given it to those folks
Living in Massachusetts
Tennessee and Ohio, too

For I must protect
The ecosystem from aphids
They have no respect
For they stick to leaves like crazy glue
Killing plants
Old and new

With my voracious appetite
I eat them up in the broad daylight
So that leaves do not die of wilt
And farmers need not sulk or cry


© Paterika Hengreaves
Summer 2003/New York, USA



This poem is about the family of beetles known in Barbados
(my homeland) as ladybirds. Scientists refer to these minor
creatures as lady beetles. In childhood recollections, I would
spend many precious moments observing ladybirds sited in
the back garden and fields of our family home on the northern
most part of the island. I would put the captured ladybirds in
a ventilated see-through bottle and watch their antics. Of course,
when done I would release them unharmed back to their natural
habitat. I like them way back then and still do but not the
centipede though, such a horrible creature that would sting like crazy.
As a child, I was told by my grand mother not to harm ladybirds
because to do so would spell “bad luck” lol now, but I believed
every word my grandmother said. One day I saw a ladybird on my
mother’s shoulder, for she had just come from the garden where
she had been picking pigeon peas. I cried to her, “Mother there
is a ladybird on your shoulder”.She said with a great smile, “really,
then that is my good luck for today!” She did not brush it off and
went on her way into the house. When I looked at her shoulder
again it was not there. Mother said, “It flew away on its own
reconnaissance so my good luck is here to stay”, she smiled.
So you see I grew up believing that ladybirds are good luck charms.
No wonder, for they are gorgeous creatures.

While on holiday at my sister’s home in New York, and during
the usual after dinner chat, I heard that certain places in the USA
have adopted these beautiful creatures as State symbols.
This gave me the inspiration to write this poem about them in
Free Verse form so becoming since, they epitomize freedom in
the true sense of the word, wouldn’t you say! Now here in Ohio,
I have seen lots of them in the garden and this was before
the autumn season set in.