A/N: This is a series of three poems, each written at a different point in my life, on my thoughts about growing up.
This first poem in the "trilogy" was written when I was eleven years old, so it isn't top-notch, but it's the beginning. It's really not bad for an eleven-year-old, either. This is the "caterpillar" poem.

The Butterfly 1: The Caterpillar
I am a cocoon
My world I ponder
As I wait to become a butterfly.
But
What is a butterfly?
Will it hurt, this change?
Fear of change, it consumes me
As I wait in the dark, worm cocoon.
I think- as a child
A larva
I was happy
I saw the grace and beauty
Of the butterfly
But yet
I never wanted to be one.
Curiosity
For the future
Pricks me
As I wait in the dark, warm cocoon.
The process of changing
I have always feared
But I suppose
If I stretch out
And accept the change
I will be happy and hopeful
Hope
For the future
Glows inside me
As I wait in the dark, warm cocoon.
I know
I will finally see
The true brilliance of the butterfly
As a real adult
A real butterfly
And I will not stand
To watch my life go by-
No, of course not!
I will reach for the good times
And cherish them
And place them in the box in my mind
Labeled "childhood"
And I will not cry when I look at them-
I will smile.