Things To Remember For Caterpillars


Caterpillar likes his life. He chomps his chunky greens and ruminates. He has put a few pounds: that's contentment, a physical manifestation of his ease in the world. Literally, he is growing in importance.
He has a cousin the same age as him, the same growth spurt. Cousin Caterpillar is nervous about his girth though. It makes you a bigger target for predators he says, and what are we growing for?
How a metamorphic invertebrate feels is irrelevant, Caterpillar reminds himself. He spins himself a chrysalis. Cousin Caterpillar must do just the same. If one is a caterpillar, this is what must be done. It's a fine job, velvety, rich looking, it fits to perfection.
But inside the pod it is so dark!
He can hear his heart beating and it doesn't sound right at all.
He can hear the wind rising outside and do nothing more to shelter himself.
He is stuck. He closes his eyes though there's no point.
After this: after this he will not know the world at all.
He will not know anything!
He seeks to remember. He cannot remember.
What should he not forget?
In the dark he feels lost. He dissolves. He is lost.

When the spun pod splits open and Butterfly slides out he knows: he doesn't know how, he just does. He offers his wings to the daylight. As soon as they uncrumple, he will fly.




Comments

Lisa Southard said…
Nearly didn't post this one- sure I've written something very similar before- but the fascination with the morphing form won out.
23 October 2013 at 22:10
Geo. said…
You can say that again! This was terrific. A climacteric, an experience for which amnesia is the only accurate memory --metamorphosis. To be or not to be is, as a question, dwarfed by the butterfly, the moth.
24 October 2013 at 04:50
Lisa Southard said…
Climacteric- a fine word! Thank you Geo. :-)
24 October 2013 at 21:49
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