Little Choice / Two Poems

There Will Be Surrender

©2023 “Fiery Metamorphosis” by Sherry Killam

I Will Change

This morning and the summer

I was nine

I was squirming out of the cocoon

Ashamed for an instant

That I couldn’t fly.

(I was wet, sticking to myself,

Trapped in my own body

Tangled in the fabric of the shroud,

Wild and frantic to get free.)

It was so difficult

I wanted to cry

But I had to keep at it

Like before, as always.

A caterpillar has to become a butterfly

Or she’ll die.

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©2023 “Garden Muse” by Sherry Killam

I Will Grow

I am the root,

Stem, leaf, and flower

Of myself.

Don’t hasten the bloom

With your aesthetic impatience.

If the hope of a flower attracts you

Take care to cultivate me.

Nourish my roots first

Light, air, space for my leaves.

If you don’t have the time

Buy some pretty cut flowers

And leave me alone.

I will grow.

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