The Backporch Review 2022

Cethosia Biblis
By Natalie O’Keefe, 11
Through the prison door Fear stood guard and asked her,
Will they look at her as one of their own, is she enough, is she real?
She is cethosia biblis and what if she’s hated for it?
She could fly far from the lepidopterist’s gaze, to the forests
The forests which she’s longed for, the spectacle
Those who had flown already, out the taunting window,
Out of the entangling lies and into awaited truth
Every denial of safety and strength six feet under as scarlet wings
blossomed
No longer would she fear the snakes that hid in trees giving the world
victims to forget
She wouldn’t suffocate over youth struck down in ill timing, the
percentage who nearly gave up
A percentage she was afraid of joining, attempts to surrender beauty to the
conqueror worms,
So why does she sit here and sing her predecessor's laments?
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