Although they fall below my threshold of a central nervous system, I still feel for their plight. They attempt in vain to escape this fortress through a transparent barrier that tortures them with the prospect of a sunny day on the other side. The stronger ones make it to the top while intermittently attempting flight as the weaker fall down among the remains of what is probably their brothers and sisters.

Without a sufficient nervous system they try the same procedure over and over. Doomed to repeat for their Hundred Hours of Solitude. I lack an proper reason for how they got into this place. One just fell over while walking on the window sill. Another fell over while walking high up on the glass. They make a light clicking noise when they fall from a height and immediately start to walk towards the light. Plants have the same instinct called phototropism – a tendency to grow towards light.

Feelers around their mouth search frantically in front of them for an end to the invisible wall while their six legs inch them forward away from death and towards the light. They lack the proper pigment of a ladybug and seem reflect a rusty orange. I could make an elaborate metaphor about how both me and the ladybugs are sitting by the window because of the light. Both of us are technically dying with our DNA slowly wearing away. But today is too nice of a day for a gloomy metaphor and I can see a ladybug on the other side of the glass….