metamorphosis

once upon a time,
caterpillar thoughts
crawled over restless minds
stirring paper leaves
into a story about a life
that did not blend into the trees
sunlight streamed on her face
and she started to believe
maybe…

yet in the company of others
she felt herself
trapped in the same routine
chewing over unspoken words
cocooning beautiful thoughts
into regurgitated strings of anxiety
drinking 6 bottles of vodka cruisers
to drown her palpitating heart
from fluttering between
not giving a fuck and caring too much
she found herself stuck

but
something was different today
her nightmare-filled breaths
held the faint perfume of waterlogged wings
from trembling lips and strained smile
she spilled a kaleidoscope of butterfly corpses.
hope-blotted wings no longer
flitted through hazy memories
spinning a fantasy
where she could be happy

the sun hid behind the clouds
for the plot did not twist
she should have known
metamorphosis does not occur in reality.