The Hawk Moth

         The Hawk Moth

         Alexandr Piatkov


“Get this: those idiots caught a hawk moth caterpillar and kept it in a jar with

twigs and leaves until it pupated. Now they’re just waiting for the

metamorphosis.”


“I’d actually love to see that.”


“Sure, but you won’t believe the kind of meaning they’re projecting onto the

whole thing!”


“What do you mean?”


“Well, they see it as a natural process unfolding right before their eyes. This

massive, fat caterpillar with a saber-like horn defiantly pointing upward—

something that used to mindlessly devour all the foliage in the garden—suddenly

had a change of heart, so to speak. It found a pile of dry twigs and leaves,

crawled into the thickest briar, and pupated right there.”


“That is a powerful image, indeed. But what of it?”


“Now they’re claiming that for six months, this pupa has been actively building a

completely new entity. New body parts and organs are being formed from the

biological material it consumed in the garden.”


“You’re starting to scare me!”


“That’s exactly what I’m saying—they’ve completely lost their minds!”


“But where’s the hyperbole in that?”


“Oh, come on! They claim that this is the blueprint for how all biological

organisms evolve! Supposedly, they accumulate energy—perhaps not in the most

graceful way at times—but then some kind of feedback mechanism kicks in. The

organism, having grown to an outrageous size, suddenly changes its imperative. It

stops devouring everything in sight, retreats into a dead end where no one will

disturb it—and from which it can no longer escape on its own—and surrenders

itself to the will of its inherent genetic program.”


“Brilliant. What exactly are they smoking?”


“It gets worse; most people wouldn’t even see this in their worst nightmares.

They are applying this exact model to entire ethnicities! They claim an ethnicity

is also a biological organism. Granted, they say it has to live in its natural

environment, in symbiosis, within a ‘nurturing landscape,’ so to speak, for it to

work.”


“And what about the people who ride the subway?”


“They are doomed to carry pastries and thermoses of tea to those who are actively

involved in the process of biological development.”


“Like Alien?”


“Yeah, that’s pretty much how the antagonists react, both within society and in

neighboring ones!”


“But the pastries get digested, and the transformation process can no longer be

stopped?”


“Exactly. But the scariest part is that the metamorphosis results in a Hawk Moth.

It looks exactly like a stealth fighter jet!”


“Terrifying. So, this symbolizes an inevitable victory?”


“That’s just it! They want to use it as a symbol of transitioning into a whole

new social, economic, and technological dimension!”


“Seriously, though, what are they smoking? I can smell some kind of acrid smoke

right now!”


“Sergey! Are you brewing coffee in the middle of the night again?”


“Oh, I’m so sorry, honey, I didn’t mean to. I put it on and dozed off for a

second, and it boiled over!”


“Get your laptop out of the kitchen! We’re going to burn the house down one day

because of your night vigils!”


“But I had such a vivid dream that Sasha and I were talking!”


“Oh please, you can’t get a sensible word out of him even during the day!”


“Uh-huh... The things you dream up sometimes!”






PUBLICATION DETAILS
Original Title: Бражник (Brazhnik)
Author: Alexandr Piatkov
Translated from Russian by AI Assistant / Перевод с русского языка: AI-ассистент
Publication Date: September 2026
Format: Short Story / Miniature
Source Text: proza.ru/avtor/alexanderan
Publication Platform: proza.ru
© Copyright: Alexandr Piatkov, 2015
Certificate of Publication: / Свидетельство о публикации №215051201807