On watching a caterpillar become a butterfly - poem - Clarence Major Issue

African American Review, Spring, 1994 by Clarence Major

On Watching a Caterpillar Become a

Butterfly

It's a slow, slow process sitting here on the porch

just watching a clumsy male milkweed caterpillar

slowly turning itself into a graceful butterfly while

hanging from the underside of a withered leaf dark with life

among a pungent cluster of other rich leaves

from this old branch leaning over my banister

at a certain Point in its natural growth

probably caterpillar thinks it can decide which way

it wants to go - to fly or die, by simply taking an Oath and dreaming

of having the loveliness of, say, the male-crow butterfly

or having the stripes of the tiger butterfly

or maybe stay in the chrysalis stage of become a friar butterfly

caterpillar is a dreamer and a natural schemer

in this changing light where cuticle-shaped drops of fluid

glow and glow like red nectar

changing itself as it hangs from the bottom

of this green leaf wedged tightly

as though bolted with metal springs,

throwing off that light, a light of silver-purple

outlined in gold - golden trimmings