“Purim and the Beetles of Our Lady”, a Poem

Purim and the Beetles of Our Lady

My love for this earth goes beyond thought,

a fan writes me and so does mine, except for

coleomegilla maculata, these beetles of Our Lady

that saved Mary’s garden from mealybugs in

medieval times. They emerge in a moment of melt

to slip into our homes through crevices too slight

for a whisper, coleomegilla, surely not

from the rescued yiddish of my father—

megillah for a lengthy convoluted story,

retold at the feast of Purim, suspense and revenge in the telling: Queen Esther,

Uncle Mordecai, and Haman the villain

to be read on the eleventh day of Adar,

not too early in the calendar for these

ten-spotted bloodlets dropping into dinner,

swarming the globe light over the table,

crowding the mullions in morning sunlight,

our commonest ladybug, which Spellcheck

will redo as communist, not a bad word choice

for these hordes to be vacuumed up and expelled

naked in the snow or in the compost barrel, but

do I love this earth enough to store them

in ladybug houses available online, free shipping,

until the spring month of Adar is over, then

unleash them to feast in my vegetable garden

on the species that riddle the leafy crops?

Let us reflect on Haman the evil one

the Agagite in Persia under King Xerxes

in the fifth century B.C., now called

before the common era, which is not before

ladybugs first hatched. Consider the orphan

Queen Esther who has married Ahasuerus

the king, consider the good uncle Mordecai

who urges her to foil the plot against her people

by revealing her origins—until then unknown.

Oh what a megillah long before the story

of Mary rescued from mealybugs by

coleomegilla maculata, long before beetles

began to eat holes in my love for this earth.

Lois’ Response

Note: Please think about this poem for yourself before reading my thoughts, and add your comments below! There is no such thing as one “correct” interpretation, but tell me what you think I missed!

For general information on how to read a poem, try Reading Poetry: Why and How

The speaker asks if she loves the earth enough to take the time to collect ladybugs. She views them as a nuisance and connects them to drops of blood, yet at the same time, she knows they help protect gardens in the spring.

I like ladybugs, so I don’t understand why the speaker doesn’t, but then again I’m not bothered by insects unless I know they will bite or sting.

Within the rumination on ladybugs, the speaker intertwines 2 stories, one from the Christian tradition in which the Virgin Mary sent ladybugs to medieval Europe to save the crops from mealybugs, and another, from the Jewish, in which Queen Esther saved the Jewish people from destruction in Persia, which is celebrated today with the holiday Purim.

Esther was always my favorite Bible story, so honestly that interested me in this poem too.

Honestly, I’m struggling to get the connection between ladybugs and Queen Esther, but it seems to me that the point is that it’s a good idea to look beyond the annoyance of personal problems in light of the overall benefit. For example, without ladybugs to eat destructive insects, people would have starved. Without Esther and Mordecai’s place in the Persian government, the Jewish people might have perished.

And while I’m not much of a gardener, this poem has certainly raised my awareness of the value of ladybugs and made me want to make sure I have them around my house. I wonder if they eat mosquitos?

This poem is a hard one so please share your thoughts below!

More by Maxine Kumin

Purim and the Beetles of Our Lady is found in Maxine Kumin’s collection, And Short the Season. You can read more about Maxine Kumin and her other works here.

Help ladybugs thrive in your own backyard!