“Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home
Your house is on fire and your children are gone
All except one, and that’s Little Anne
For she has crept under the warming pan.”
Ladybugs have walked on my fingertips
since I was two years old, still in diapers,
and when a teenager and an adult.
In England they are called lady beetles.
The six thousand or more species
feed on aphids and scale insects, and so,
they are welcome in any house with plants.
Named after the scarlet cloak of Mary,
their seven spots symbolize seven joys,
or the seven sorrows, if you feel sad.
Such was household liturgy in past times.
Do children still sing the Ladybug song?
I have not heard it sung in quite some time.
The ladybug is a happy icon.
—Kevin T McEneaney