heresy

tiffany the regal
larva monarch heir by blood
to royalty with brightly colored
future unstuck to ground to branches
caterpillar deluxe
crosses paths with steffie the noble
larva queen heir by blood to regal airs
tiffany tips imaginary crown held
in place by antennae and speaks lofty
evocations to forthwith transpire
of her heavenly flutterings above
the peasants of the earth of the
gossamer beauty of her robed wings
of peasant humans stopping
to notice to worship her
obtrusive magnificence
of poets divining her flutterways

steffie the noble queen larva is
uplifted by the message of
larva transcendent glory she
can almost see brighter
flutterings ahead
there is a lilt in her little
caterpillar gallop as she
leaves praising tiffany the
regal always such a positive
soul thinks steffie as she
traverses the mindworks of
butterflyhood aspiring to
flighty aboveness when she
spots from a windowsill the
most gruesome horrifying sight it
turns her stomach and all of
tiffany's words of flutteriness and
flitteriness melt in visions of
tragedy thru the window she
clearly sees a glass case displaying
butterflies of all sorts with pins
stuck in them trophies like mooseheads & elk & such

the vision of little butterfly voodoo dolls with pins stuck in their abdomens gives steffie a bellyache steffie vows to never
enter a cocoon of transubstantiation
she will remain a caterpillar
royal larva queen forever she spends
the rest of her life warning unsuspecting caterpillars of the
horror that awaits them on the other
side

and it comes to pass that steffie the
regal's life is crushed in a
garden when kindly old mrs higginbottom accidentally steps
on her as tiffany the royal monarch
flits above shaking her head
pondering all the ways humans
kill butterflies thinks to herself
if only stubborn steffie had listened
to the truth y'know humans stick things in their fellows as well

i am grateful sez tiffany that i am
transubstantiated perhaps humans
are a superior species but at least
butterflies don't run around sticking
sharp objects in each other

tiffany fluttered away continuing
to speak evocatively her
religious nonsense till one fine spring
day she was captured in a
dragnet a pin stuck thru her
by an algebra major and
placed inside a glass case designated
enemy of the state

 © John Kennan 4-12-21