Chrysalis

For three days I scratched at the scar tissue

Hoping to reveal my wet and pulsing heart

Is there a word for the moment before pain registers in your body? 

Hand pulling away from a sizzling pan

That brief, suspended curiosity

As if you could skirt by without feeling it and still heal

Lately, I’m stuck in chrysalis

Impatiently waiting sun soaked flight

Picture: your goddaughter and I hunched 

Backs baking in the sun

Poking a boneless body with a stick 

“The prettiest caterpillars, make the ugliest moths” 

A friend we used to share remarked

meaning nothing, but saying everything. 

What would it feel like to stand on his neck and remind him

Wings are worth more than any

colors 

smooth surfaces

symmetry

Girls would trade it all to take off