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Butterfly Wings
No one sang me lullabies.
Cradled in a splintered crib, I was lulled to sleep
by the sound of my own silent cries.
My lips were sewn shut – stitched
in awkward zigzags. I ripped those stitches
wide, my mouth becoming a perfectly shaped O.
Butterflies tried to flutter from my mouth
even though their flesh still tasted of caterpillar. I
tried to vomit them out, but they were one with my tongue.
Maybe that is why they had time for a metamorphosis.
Too bad I missed mine – there I was – a baby
with little to no chance of gaining my butterfly wings, too.
Angela Jackson-Brown is the author of the award-winning poetry collection House Repairs and five novels. In addition to her creative work, she serves as an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing Program at Indiana University, and as a member of the graduate faculty at the Naslund-Mann School of Writing at Spalding University. Her dual roles as educator and writer continually inspire her exploration of craft and commitment to storytelling in all its forms.