BTT #12.2: Stages of Life

Stages of Life

We love to watch the

Monarchs when they are young,

Inching along the edges of their

Milkweed world

Devouring their green nursery with a

Grim and fervent appetite.

We thrill to see them fly

When they are grown,

Flitting in the edges

Of our gardens and

Lighting the dark corners of

The groves until they

Rise together against the

Coming frosts finally to

Gather and intertwine to drape

The sharp-needled evergreeens

For a season with a crawling

Gown of autumn fire.

—   —   —

But I, myself, hold the

Chrysalis most tender to my heart,

Where a skin of leathered jade

Is wrapped tight beneath

A translucent membrane

Of papered expectation,

Bound by a solitary

Golden chain and a sprinkling

Of shimmering diadems

Clinging by the most tenuous

Of threads to the wider web of life,

But mostly just hanging…

Just hanging there

Surrounded by the atmosphere and

Sunlight, and merely the very

Cosmos whirring in oblivious

Disregard around this

Point of breathing stillness,

Where silent wings simply

Lie enfolded upon a

Slowly beating heart.

—   —   —

Lona Gynt, April 2016

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 This is a poem from April 2016 that I am linking to Björn’s dVerse prompt on use of metaphor.  I have been wanting to show it to my dVerse friends for a while.  I will let y’all figure out the metaphors….

says the girl in the chrysalis of jade…

🦋

Here is the link to the dVerse prompt, join us there as we flit about deciding what’s what.

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https://dversepoets.com/2018/11/08/meet-the-bar-creating-metaphor/

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All rights for text reserved by Lona Gynt, July 2017.

This post is dedicated to my Mother who helped me raise a Monarch Butterfly when I was five,  and to my Therapist, Tamara, who helps me see that even folded wings can be beautiful.