FROM HUMAN TO HUMANE

The caterpillar and the butterfly,
Two versions of the same genetic code,
Suggest that in ourselves as well may lie
The makings of another human mode,
That what is lumbering and grublike now,
Earthbound and plodding and the easy prey
Of raptors’ beaks may be transformed somehow
To priceless porcelain, though made of clay.
Or if that image shift seems too abrupt,
Compare us first to fettered butterflies
Cocooned in pendant sacs which then erupt
In glory on a sunny day, arise
In primal flight and waft for continents—
So may it be in humankind’s ascents.

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