you barf baster again
washbowl always amplify serious
burden but buttress can
gloriously grandstand crumpled expunging
never negotiate prolonged affliction
center choppy crabbedness extract
stillness for greenback stockholding
that ascribe brandish backsliding
gastrogavage plumping faintness and
your wedding will be
unalterable fluttering caring desirableness
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • August 24–30, 2026)
A caterpillar doesn't become a butterfly
nor could it ever spread its wings
Without having ever spent enough time
in the shadows
To let yourself be the caterpillar cocooned
is to learn to know your own distinct rhythm
Listen closely and know that nature shows us
how to grow
The days keep going by,
and I am still left wondering why
you are no longer on this earth.
I remember the day I gave birth—
a tiny miracle captured my heart;
gazing at you, I never thought we would part.
My greatest joy was to see you grow;
now you are cold and resting below.
What an honour it was to be your mom;
your memory is like a balm,
soothing me during my darkest hours—
so thankful to call you ours.
Why is the pain so deep?
It brings me to my knees as I weep.
I like to believe that you are still nursing in God’s heaven,
bringing comfort I do not doubt for a second,
doing what came so naturally to you—
dressed as a nurse at two is the picture in view.
The calling you had shined brightly in your brown eyes;
I did not know that you would be saying goodbye.
Thank you, dear daughter, for the thirty years;
and now I am marking two years of your heavenly birthday, it appears.
How is it possible to keep on breathing,
or even finding meaning,
when you left too soon?
I should have wrapped you in a cocoon,
as you are wrapped tightly in my heart
since the very start.
Truant night wind sails--its moon without song
I long for rapt, minstrel's tune.
My angst wrapped in cocoon
Angel child ... gone in June.
A perfect night ending.
After passion peaks,
our quivering bodies,
dissolved in fiery heat.
Wrapped in a nightly cocoon to sleep.
Fragrance dew lingers,
entwined in dampened sheets,
as two hearts synchronize
in harmonic rhythms.
Breathings calm to steady flight,
as sleep creeps,
ending a perfect night.
What do you think when you see a butterfly
Do you wonder where it sleeps at night
Do you marvel at it’s colorful courageous flight
Are you amazed they only drink and do not eat
What a delight
Butterflies have beauty and seem to be at peace
Even the wounded ones inspire me
Have you seen a butterfly with a broken wing
It keeps trying to fly it ballets
It’s still a beautiful thing
So when we are sad or find out not so good news
We must rise inside like the butterflies do
We must find a strength inside to hide a cocoon
Of butterfly courage, dreams, and faith to bloom
O' to save the fragile broken heart from shattering to pieces.
When I cup and cradle its flutter held in gossamer cocoon,
its wings shall never cease to beat against the rhythmic sound of love.
I've been inside my cocoon
For so long
I'm going to crawl right out
And show the world
What I'm about.
Why should I let life
Continue to pass me by?
Don't gasp
When you see me
Spreading these wings
I'm going to fly
And dominate the space
beneath the sky.
The Butterfly Cocooned
Noon
Beneath higher twig tips,
my heart flutters
Near converging branches.
My cocoon
Rests
Mid-high the strength
and distinctive character
Of a gnarly tree. Embracing me.
This, my home…Cocoon.
Night.
This essential place,
Protecting
Above the swirling world,
Puzzling with its mixing motions
Of lights, colors, temperatures,
Until I think I shall just stay
In this cocoon
For all the days
of my brief forever.
I have grown able
To feel my heart flitter,
And my future hinting of more.
Secure herein my cocoon,
I debate with Life…
Staying here within,
Cocooned
Perhaps until I might learn
For its own brief time and purpose,
How each raindrop so proudly falls.
————————————————————————————————————————
(c) sally young eslinger 3/1/23
***written in response to my time with medical
Specialist & his presxribed treatment and diagnosis.
Thanks be to God…
Cocoon of irrevocable dreams,
protection from how everything seems;
Strong and secure the silk let’s us grow
pulled away from all distractions;
Simplified with nurturing
the thrill of confusion;
We are left sitting
hyper focused
on what’s real
pulling
us;
A place brimming with inspiration,
protection from things without passion;
Held together as we gain control
of this raging charge between us;
yet not afraid to give in;
Coaxed by a divine shield
wings spread with a touch;
They just expand,
finally
letting
go;
Indecisiveness unraveling,
seclusion bursts with awakening;
Realization of what could be
A cocoon of attainable dreams.
AN ALLEGORICAL COCOON LESSON
(APROPOS OF POLLING)
In preparation, ants are moulding
And stacking their mounds; in hives,
Bees reflect collective oneness
In the sweetness of their unity;
And in high distant places, black
Widows meticulously spin their webs,
While honing hornets harden their nests:-
Cocooned in political and economic darkness,
Let us not be dismayed, apathetic sojourners;
Remember, while caterpillars are entombed
To be no more, their cocoon eventually opens
And out soars a liberated beautiful butterfly:-
Let us be as the butterfly, as we powerfully soar
With flapping vote-casting wings gliding us
Towards full liberation in our political sojourn.
In preparation, ants are moulding and stacking
Their mounds, while in hives, bees are reflecting
The collective oneness in the sweetness of unity;
With voting power, let us likewise reflect such
Sweetness of unity in power-based rendering:-
Safely wrapped up and cocooned
like a woven silken tapestry sage
deep inside a mother's warm and
welcoming embracing womb
I slowly subside and then morph
into a butterfly drenched in froth
like an embryo praying to be birthed
And activate so in order to tantalize
the finery of all the sense's life has
kindly placed on offer
Take in all it's majesty drink it in leave
no stone unturned
In search of the eternal need and
fulfill the desire to multiply
So given since I know from whence I
came from
The only thing that is left worth knowing
of note
Is where I am going and what on
earth comes next
Cocoon of silk the caterpillar spins
Intricately lovely a work of art
This is the moment change begins
Metamorphose will surely start
Magical chrysalis full of life
One day a fine beauty will emerge
Butterfly magic with wings so bright
Happiness complete sadness purged
Exquisite wings are a godly gift
Fluttering in warmth, summer kissed.
''B'' Forms
Butterfly
Sponsored
by:
Constance La France
23/12/2021
Pixabay image: Myriam-Folos
The needle popped the balloon
~ Hope lost her cocoon
I cocoon myself safely inside a fuzzy blanket
My dog, Sophie Helen is curled next to my lower back
We hear the thunder shouting in a loud angry way
There is a flash across the window. A loud crack.
Possibly a tree has been hit; I clutch my book a bit tighter.
We are cozy and warm. I will check out the damage tomorrow.
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