Mulberry Silk

a free verse poem

Photo by Lucas Benjamin on Unsplash

Somewhere
on a mulberry leaf
a silkworm
forms its cocoon

amongst the other
threaded dwellings.
They live to be the fabric
of someone else’s
comfort. She molds,
shapes, changes
into the expectation
of becoming a moth.

I think of her
in the middle of
July. Sitting over
many candles atop
a chocolate cake. I wonder
if she feels at home or

cold or afraid inside
her chrysalis. Entering
into a new phase
of an already short life.
Thirty flames go out,
wax drips and I wish

her essence becomes
the finest, softest
qualities of silk.