it was spring when they fell fell fell from the sky all in one day bringing their messages to the earth a soft falling snow of white whisper-thin membranes drifting slowly down with a pattern of dots just barely dark enough to be read so many messages so many words to put together we will be visiting just visiting do not fear us we will come we will visit we will leave don't be afraid we will come we will remove what you no longer want so tell us what you no longer want what you wish to be free of what you wish to erase from the earth for we are hungry and we must eat will eat whatever you say we should eat now we will listen listen listen while you tell us what to eat and then we will come and then we will eat and then we will be gone so the people fascinated and frightened were abuzz with their wonder and their fear and their deciding what to do and say so they broadcast on their televisions and they printed on their newspapers and they blogged on their internet all the things they wished would just disappear and though they tried to put an end to things that could not necessarily be eaten like poverty and crime and disease they also listed the obvious like garbage dumps and nuclear waste and some children tried to wish away their siblings and their parents scolded saying no no no in a fearful way and so they broadcast all their wishes and then waited waited waited until another day had passed and a swirling spinning cloud formed over the earth pale and purple and alive and down down down it came slowly moving massive people pointing up and shouting some running away with fear to hide in buildings when the moths appeared lavender powdery wings so wide feathery antennae closer closer closer a lovely lavender whirl of wing-swept air twisting up lifting up raising up the litter huge they said two feet three feet four across impossible amazing horrible they came and they ate and they understood humanity and left the siblings alone and the disliked in-laws but ate ate ate all the old cars in junkyards the nuclear waste the seeping chemicals the contaminants the cast-away plastics the pitch from the sand the trash from the roadsides and the people watched from their windows and doorways the sailing soft lavender moths eating eating eating until all was gone clean pure and beautiful and then in a whirr of wings slowly beating the air one by one the arose again up up up and into the lavender cloud the great swirl and roll of a breeze over the earth and slowly it faded back to the blue of the sky and again another snowfall out of the blueness the whisper-thin missives all the same delivering the message thank you thank you thank you then a cloud came and a rain shower and the snowy missives washed away disintegrated dissolved disappeared nothing more