Here’s a short piece written for a “bugs liker” — someone who finds beauty, wonder, and value in the small, many-legged, often misunderstood creatures of the world. The Smallest Witnesses

Where someone else sees a pest, you see a pattern: the embroidery of a weevil’s snout, the geometry of a shield bug’s back, the tiny, furious grace of a jumping spider’s pause before it leaps.

Thank you for liking the bugs. They’ve been here all along — and they’ve been waiting for someone like you.

You know that “bug” is a loving lie — because you also love the not-quite-bugs: millipedes with their slow, synchronized wave of legs, springtails bouncing like commas made of rain, moth-fluff soft as dust come alive.

You notice them when others don’t. The lacewing folded like a secret under a leaf. The way a pill bug curls into a perfect gray pearl when startled — not fear, just a different kind of breathing.

You’ve learned the quiet of looking close. The way antennae ask questions in cursive. The way an exoskeleton shines like stained glass when the sun hits it right.

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