Wings of Outrageous Fortune

(Ahhhhhh! the first one. I have too many ideas. It's my sister's birthday, but I couldn't come up with one for her. One year since my cousin Max (Matthew) passed away. However, it's the prompt that stuck.)

Wings of Outrageous Fortune

 As I face this month long tree I have set myself to climb,

I feel bloated, slow, and low down to the ground.

My many feet go in such opposite directions,

That I had ground to a halt.

I lift a part of myself out of the mud,

And I stretch toward the sky;

But only encounter rough bark.

I hang on for dear life,

And drag my reluctant behind

Onto this precarious first step.

The trees' hard cold shell is no different than

The prickly poisonous barbs my back presents

To the predatory world.

In making a connection with the tree

I am scraping my vulnerable underbelly raw.

I want just let go, roll up into a ball

And slither back under my cool dark rock.

I make myself get a grip,

And get ready for the next slow leap forward.

I must find a sturdy branch and go out on a limb.

I see others have joined me.

We'll wrap ourselves thread after thread in a warm cocoon

 Of kind words as we hang together for a time.

Here I will stretch, and be nourished.

I will grow and struggle with muffled screams.

I'll beat with tender wings against walls I built.

Breakthrough! Air and sun flood through the cracks.

I squeeze and squirm and push my way free.

I flex my tear sodden wings to test them out.

The gentle breeze and warm sun makes them firm.

I launch myself into solo flight.

I am a bright, beautiful moth. that's right, a moth.

I'll never be a butterfly, but I'm going places.

I'm off to seek the light.