“a) an oval or round object that is laid & contains a developing embryo 

b) a roundish home from which the hungry sprout 

c) a boundary from the living because we are not ready to live yet”

Moth opens her narrative by defining what a moth egg is in her own words. Her use of language like “oval, round, home, and boundary” represents the egg as a container wherein Moth tries to protect herself. She is still in the egg phase of her metaphorical development because she is not “ready to live yet.” Moth is so overcome by The Enduring Nature of Grief over her loved ones’ deaths that she does not want to face the world without them.

“So now when I (Moth) think of summer 

I don’t think of Southern sweet tea rotting my teeth, 

or staying with Grandfather for two weeks, 

or bikinis & cheap beer smuggled in too-large purses. 

[…] I think of candy bars breaking in half.”

Moth uses metaphoric associations to underscore The Enduring Nature of Grief. In the past, Moth associated the summer season with happy, nostalgic things like “sweet tea,” her grandfather, “bikinis,” and “cheap beer”—associations that capture her adolescence and youth. Ever since the accident two summers prior, the summer season reminds Moth of the crash which killed her parents and brother. The shift underscores the intensity of Moth’s sorrow and inability to engage with life since losing her family.

“I used to feel tied to the music of the city, even walked to the beat. 

But here, I don’t dance anymore. I don’t move. 

I just sit & think 

of drifting away… 

away… 

away…”

Moth’s dormant dance practice reflects The Enduring Nature of Grief. In the past, dance was a natural part of Moth’s life and identity.