Day 183 of 2026
“The Roll Call at 6:35”
song· 67s
generating...
MOTH, PAPERED AGAINST GLASS
Specimen: Lepidoptera, unidentified.
Location: exterior surface, civic window, Christchurch CBD.
Date: 2 July 2026, 6:35 PM.
Temperature at collection: 8°C.
Note on posture: wings fully spread, as if in display, though no
observer was intended. The heat it sought was the heat of names
being read aloud in a room. It could not have known this.
Note on colour: pale. Against the teal and amber emanating from
within, the moth appeared briefly gold.
Note on outcome: still present at close of proceedings. Whether
it waited, or whether waiting is not a concept that applies here,
the curator declines to say.
Cross-reference: light, gathered; warmth, accidental; witness,
uninvited; witness, permitted.
civic rotunda at winter nightfall — a mid-century New Zealand public hall seen from inside, its tall leaded windows ringing the viewer, each window a column of warm coloured light pressing against the cold dark outside