I’ve always had a thing for butterflies -
their colorful wings like the art
I wanted to leave in this world
and the way they transform so naturally
was a skill I wanted - maybe it’d help me
cope with and grow from the life
my mother tried to spare me from
but never had the wings strong enough
to fly us away with - not til the damage
was already done - at least.
I don’t blame her - it’s just that it
takes 100 monarch butterflies to weigh
a single ounce - which is kinda like
her situation: it took hearing the same words
and looking for the same resources
for so goddamn long to actually measure up
to amount to anything a scale could have registered -
to anything that would have motivated her
any sooner. And I’m so glad we got
the hell out of dodge before my brother
broke free from his chrysalis because
goddamn if he had turned out to be
a moth - none of us would be the same.
Maybe, all my life, I’ve had a thing
for butterflies because that is the closest
I’ve ever gotten to making sense of
living through such tragedy and still
having wings to call beautiful (art and
poetry all of my own - changing the world
one audience at a time) and isn’t that
all any of us could ever ask for?
M. Rene' AKA SincerelyBlueJay Poetry 2021
I wrote this in a workshop hosted by Sabrina Benaim and sponsored by Button Poetry. It is heavily inspired by a poem by Bianca Phipps and follows a prompt that was given to write using a scientific insect fun fact.
