Chrysalis

Chrysalis


Do not stare.
Make no mention of his broken face
And the spaces where his ears should be.
Turn your eyes into x-rays, or pull his soul
Full out into the open, so you can really see him.

Kareel, I think, is a Ukrainian chrysalis
A marvelous child, temporarily entombed,
Locked inside long corridors of struggle.
He inhabits his crumpled form with unusual radiance.

His mangled mouth stretches, straining to smile,
With half-sealed eyes fluttering feebly like antennae still damp,
Longing to burst out and embrace the light,
Unaware that scalpels and stitches will free him.

His inner liveliness will unfold, months at a time,
Waving his colors like bright new wings,
Proclaiming what I have always known,
That inside his outside, there is beauty,