Shedding it All...

You named me “Butterfly” and I was born on a Summers morning after a Winters heartbreak and a fallen Autumn

The weight of life's cocoon

encased me and I was mummified

into thinking that I could never fly

Because I was too unique to fit the mold

The truth is, I had never met a me

like me before

So I conformed

And thus the layering began

The image

The status

The need for facade

The need to belong

To the hologram we call life

I sang from a place that was distant

And danced without music

And used meaningless words – so as not to offend

It seemed to work

For the passionless world

that I existed in

Held in mid breath

like a fetus yet to develop

I stayed

Living off of an unhealthy heartbeat

I cried silent cries and pleaded for help

In my muted night

Until I was too weak and too tired to ignore your response

You were telling me to twist

out of the bindings

until the layers that held me

would break

And anything and anyone that supported those layers were gone

I knew instinctively that it had to be

I knew...always knew

That you did not call me out into life

To live without passion or purpose

To dance in a gray meadow

Or drink from a stagnant stream

It was time

My time

To shed it all

For the beautiful moment

That you had been waiting for since my inception

It was time to claim my name

Expand my wings

And become Your Butterfly...

“Shedding it All” Bonita Jones Knott © 9/5/2011