Molecular Expansion

Poetry on grief, nature and inevitable change

I wrote this poem for the May issue of Weaving Wisdom, a collaborative collection of plant and nature wisdom. If you haven’t already, check out this beautiful body of transformative words here:

did you know
when caterpillars cocoon
they dissolve into liquid
     every segment, every cell
     of their bodies
     dissolving into an
     unrecognizable pool
     that can only be described
as mush.

and then slowly this
indescribable soup
begins to solidify
     morphing into
     the recognizable wings
     and antenna of
     those beloved butterflies 
     we look for every summer,
flying swiftly.

to become something
new they must become
completely undone.

    this. this is what grief
    does to the human heart.
    melts us into
    an unrecognizable,
    indescribable
    sorrow. 

I feel my very cells
being remade
becoming something new
in the chrysalis
of deep loss.

somehow these creatures
manage to fly
after this cellular breakdown.

    maybe I will too