in the back of Joanna's Volvo, she devours me -
she tells, her full mouth, that her specialty is geography

she's going in -
and biology.  deep.

she wants no church to confess, her wet lips to mine is enough to tell / for this story:

encyclopedia before butterfly
the chrysalis dissolves  

a moth, a mess
her mouth of silk.

a pretty place to fall apart -
Joanna says, between breaths not sure mine or hers:
she needs me to be one

I don't see her anymore. She transfers quickly thereafter.

Breathe, chrysalis breathe.

they spin but do not drop away
I think of her.  inside, soft mass and waiting.

she never told me how they fight their way out -
what cuts through the thick?

she never told:

how they must feel, spread and magnificent, when they'd been ready to die

how cold and bright, the sudden belonging.