Butterfly or Moth

So it’s a caterpillar you think you see

Balanced on a single milkweed leaf;

Moth or butterfly will I be?

Slinking along oh so lazily

Knowing my life will be quite brief;

So it’s a caterpillar you think you see.

Soon decay will come to me,

My inner self akin to liquefied beef;

Moth or butterfly will I be?

Worry not, at the very least, my spirit will be free,

This transformation comes with great relief;

So it’s a caterpillar you think you see.

It matters not exactly how I flee,

Stout and dark or colorfully, please bear no grief;

Moth or butterfly will I be?

For within this life cycle hides a secret key,

Things unseen aren’t necessarily make belief;

So it’s a caterpillar you think you see

Moth or butterfly will I be?

BUTTERFLY OR MOTH - SYNOPSIS

This poem is my first attempt at writing a villanelle. Although not as eloquent as Dylan Thomas “Do not go gentle into that good night”, I wanted to provoke the thought that things aren’t always as you see them. No matter how beautiful or unattractive the end result, there is an exhilarating calmness in being set free. In our own brief life cycle, the transformation has no visual. However, it is the caterpillar that symbolizes the hope that our unseen spirit will journey to a different realm.