JOAN LEOTTA plays with words on page and stage. She’s been published as essayist, poet, short story writer, novelist, and a two-time nominee for Pushcart and Best of the Net. Her poetry and stories have appeared in Spillwords, One Art, The Ekphrastic Review, The Lake, and many others. She performs folktale programs most often highlighting food, family, and strong women and has just debuted a one-woman show, “Meet Louisa May Alcott, Nurse and a Force in Healing America post Civil War.” Contact joanleotta[at]gmail[dot]com.
THERE ARE STILL WONDERFUL THINGS AWAITING DISCOVERY
In Calabria, in a forest my
grandfather might have once explored,
scientists are touting the discovery
of a previously unknown species
of butterfly—dappled as if
its golden wings were brushed by
forest shadows, like today’s
shadows of poverty, of war.
But still, the creature’s alive,
beautiful, and new to us,
its dappled color
perhaps the very reason this unique
dna specimen was not
noticed earlier. The scientists
named it for a young Italian
researcher cut down by
violence in Cairo in 2016.
This butterfly both new life,
and momento mori, named for,
reminding us of a young
man whose joy was in
discovering new things,
reminding us that the thrill
of the discovery of new beauty
of gentle creatures like this
butterfly whose wings
can fan the warm calm air
of love over us,
if only we open our eyes
to search for them.
Welcome, we salute you,
“Diplodoma giulioregenii”
A new butterfly was recently discovered in Italy. It was identified in the woods of the province of Cosenza in Calabria by researchers from CREA, the Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economics. The scholars decided to dedicate their discovery to Giulio Regeni, the young researcher from Friuli who was tortured and killed in Egypt in 2016 by christening the insect with the name Diplodoma giulioregenii. —La Voce di New York, February 18, 2025
