Butterfly

One of the candidates for local office
is a felon, now being convicted again
for a crime, and soon to go to jail.

Who will vote for him, if he makes it
onto the ballot with enough signatures?
Who will endorse him?

It may be folly, but I see him
like the “little man” in the pupil of God’s
eye, going into a deep darkness

that will turn him upside down
and turn him into a true man, a man
his right size, able, when he exits

this second prison, to do his good
in the world. Or maybe it is his third
or fourth prison, if we include

the prison of a childhood in poverty,
neglect, violence, and abuse, and the prison
of the mind, all bars, all clanging

doors, locking into place.
What if he is a cocoon of a man,
who will emerge winged, free, beautiful?

— Babs