A metaphor of macroinvertibrates, or, an ode to all of you

How polluted, how convoluted, can the stream become before all signs of life surrender?? "Sometimes a polluted stream looks and smells clean..." but the surest way to tell if the stream is vulnerable, and has "lost", is through the macroinvertibrates. The emotions of the water-body. Within the spectrum of the species I strive to be the rat-tailed maggot: pollution (convolution) resistant, with a shield of armor for its skin. She navigates the meandering stream or river-bed, once clean, reliable, now littered with impurities...but still, protected by that shield and breathing through that long and rat-like tail that reaches above the cloudy water's edge so far from the heart-center...she is nearly impenetrable.

I am perpetually caught off-guard to be more like the Caddis fly, however, that builds its own casing, a safe-zone for protection, but then and still falls victim to the polluted waters. Every time. She feigns resistance through the falsetto skin, the mummy-like bag...but is not so strong on the inside.

The redeemable fact is that Caddis fly, like the Dragonfly and Damsel, still maintains some authenticity. Through her age and metamorphosing from ancient dinosaur times to present day, she is still a fighter, and takes pride in being so, that she may serve as warning of pollution for others who might follow her path to unknown demise. While the rat-tailed maggot has essentially become a robot, impenetrable to the ominous and foreboding changes of the waterbed.

This ode is partially for my learning and teachback-ing. With real life metaphors, constructivism, we are more readily able to retain foreign information. Internalize. And regurgitate with ease.

But to all of you: go and see the polluted waters and find there remaining only the species of rat-tailed maggot-harsh, resistant, benign. The cockroach. Remember the artistry and grace of the simple, vulnerable, nearly extinct Caddis fly, who builds her own sack of protection from harm, presenting a tiny tidbit of her inner structure, daring to be made even the least bit vulnerable...then hastily contaminated, and recognize that her extinction is chiefly because of your shit.