Butterfly of Virginality \
Spread thy wings, \
& soar. \
Endless night \
Endless day \
Simultaneously \
Entwined, \
Intertwined. \

Forces of Light, \
Forces of Darkness, \
Forces Unseen, \
Coalesce, \
Converge, \
Gather as one, \
For this \
Beauteous moment. \

That a caterpillar \
Might emerge from its chrysalis \
& not give up in the struggle to spread its monarchical wings to soar, \
Reaching heavensward \
Higher than it ever thought it could! \
Oh, But it could dream \
& a dream is more powerful than any words or \
Limitations imposed by reality. \

The Most High God blesses thee \
On this day, \
When you are set free \
From all that binds ye! \
You are set free \
To a fate \
That is much higher \
That is much airier, & much more ethereal than you could have ever imagined! \

To soar upon the Vernal winds \
& reach to \
***** for \
The sempiternal Sun, \
—That is your \
journey, \
That is your \
path. \

Of all fathomed, \
Impossible, \
Yet now it is \
Through the thew, \
Through the sinew, \
Of \
The Spirit: \
Hallowed it is! \

( —Se’ lah)

I was born with 12 eyes
they said it would make it easier
to see the light
but it only left me inching
in a fog
hiding from shape-shifting shadows.
So I learned to consume the dark
with my mandibles
and let it seep in to my hemolymph.
The parasitoids laid out fences
of peppermint and lavender -
trying to cage me.
But the oak tree took me in
and let me rest upon her leaves -
told me to shed my old skin.
I hung myself upside down under her branches
tried to see the world from their point of view
but there was still so little light,
and the birds were cawing
threatening to have me for breakfast.
I learned to hold myself tightly,
wrapped in imaginal discs
that liquified my dreams
into a rich soup for me to drink.
I emerged
soft and wet -
with ommatidia that see in all directions
and bear witness to invisible colors;
and with wings formed like dragon scales,
that move in the shape of infinity.
Now I feast with my feet,
feeding on nectar of Chloris
and cross continents
while they marvel at how far I have come
from the ground they tried to keep me on.

Green on green, the grub

eats its way to the calyx --


to change colour there.

A lowly caterpillar
Inching her way to a leaf
She spins her chrysalis
The sun rises and sets many times
But she does not see it
Because she has hidden herself away
In her cocoon
But finally
She begins to emerge
And she is no longer a lowly caterpillar
She has grown wings and can fly away
To a better reality

One of the first things I learned
Was that caterpillars break out of their cocoons
And become beautiful butterflies.
      So I tried.
I tried
Tried and tried.
I wanted to break out of my shell
But I never could.
Or maybe I’m not brave enough
Maybe I just entered my cocoon
And I’m about to break out of it
I just need the right amount of courage.

a curious family of raptor children, a lake of caterpillar carcasses (boulder soup), a grocer for the taliban, gas powered anything, the exposed midsection of a tree, bank robberies or bear maulings in progress, triangles, an irascible bus driver thinking in isosceles, the itinerant story of a mama mammoth, starquakes and extinctions, massive roaches, a neck bath in hot breath, sudden abeyance from behind, the way gravity kills caterpillars and spares us because all angles of gravity make 180 degrees and this is stillness. fear running a straight line from behind us, through us, and in front of us. what i consistently get caught up in, the third point might be my final resting. this is why i ******* hate triangles.