Kitchen Chemistry

I am not the caterpillar

hiding to emerge

from the cocoon as a butterfly,

unrecognizable: mysterious

transformation.

I am the strawberry slices

sprinkled with sugar, then left

alone for a while in the fridge

to change: glistening and sweet

as they’re taken out and stirred,

the same but different.

I am wholly myself, first

and last form, left alone to react

a little, a slow organic break-

down, a bright and silky

commutation.