A shadow,
A shadow so rarely seen.
One perhaps never seen before.
That of a butterfly.
I witnessed it
Flying over razor wire,
Entering a jail courtyard
During cell break.
From without it came
And it flew within
The courtyard
It entered hell as a shadow
Amongst other shadows of gloom
But came from above heaven.
It came like a dream imprisoned within a dream
That was for too long too real,
Reaching a breaking point
Like a chrysalis
And ending as
I burst free.
I transcended myself in that courtyard
And transcended myself again
When I returned
And the air of perpetual discouragement
All around me
Was a whisper within of my inevitable freedom
From the call of fate of a butterfly
That I chanced to see one mysterious day
For one mysterious moment in a very powerful reality
There is no place on earth
As dense as a prison, yet the shadow of a butterfly
Penetrated those realms and escaped.
Potent those resonances of scenes in memory
From beginning to end
Of being a prisoner who would survive to see
A sight so rare
As a glimpse of real freedom
In this world
