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RAISING BUTTERFLIES WITH YOU, BY T. DALLAS SAYLOR


                      after Jack Gilbert

When the one we called
Banana—born first,

deformed, crumpled
wings stuck

in his chrysalis,
whom we set

in a little dish
with a stick for support,

his own nectar,
his own banana slice— 

at last lay still, when
we took him down

to the bushes, laid him
beneath a leaf— 

and when, days after,
we let the others go,

unzipped their mesh
on the porch & nudged

them into the wind— 
two weeks to mate,

lay eggs, lie down
on the earth—I felt

grateful for those few days,
proud as Banana breathed

though spiracles lining
his bent back, lucky

the ones in the netting
tickled my fingers

when I reached inside
to give them sugar water—

after all, beloved, we’re all
ending our triumph,

falling through a chill
late-fall wind or holding

fast to a little stick
and living as hard as we can.



NEXT
T. Dallas Saylor is a PhD student in poetry at Florida State University, and he holds an MFA from the University of Houston. His work meditates on the body, especially gender and sexuality, against physical, spiritual, and digital landscapes. He lives in Tallahassee, FL and is on Twitter: @dallas_saylor.
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