Fourth Annual Wild Violet Writing Contest Winners (2006)
Poetry
— First Place
Mea
Culpa
A Crown of Sonnets
By Judith Goldhaber
(continued)
iii.
My nascent being, in that pupal stage,
took its instructions from an inborn text
that boldly prompted me to vivisect
the chubby grub inside me to assuage
my body’s need for energy. That rage
to live—a potent force in mankind and insect —
produced a paradoxical effect:
my size diminished with increasing age
until one day I rested and reviewed
my body parts. They’d undergone a change
into organs wholly new and strange:
thorax, proboscis, compound eyes, and crude
spiracles for breathing. And then there were these things
stuck firmly to my back, and crumpled: wings.
iv.The crumpled wings protruding from my back
took too much space, and made it hard to turn
within that narrow cage. I had to learn
to move with caution, lest the flimsy sac
burst open prematurely. Through a crack
(which towards the final days of my sojourn
shredded the silk) one compound eye could just discern
light and some movement on the jungle track
beneath the spreading oiticica tree
from which the pupa swung. The heady scent
of climbing orchids filled the airy tent
formed by the overhanging canopy.
It’s now or never! something said to me —
my brand-new heart exploded: I was free!
