I Am Awaited
By Toni La Ree Bennett
 
You have come back
as a tiny white butterfly
to remind me
I wasn’t thinking of you.

I forget you as often as I can.
This new thing you have become
you and not you
bruises my heart again
with importunate visitations.

I can’t wait to turn into something
that looks more like me, but
I am obligated to my current shape --
these preposterous appendages.

At least now I know
I am awaited.

Toni La Ree Bennett, writer and photographer, received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington (Seattle). Her work has appeared in Puerto del Sol, Hawaii Pacific Review, Journal of Poetry Therapy, and Viet Nam Generation, as well as the anthology The Muse Strikes Back (Story Line Press). She is publisher of Uccelli Press and editor of the new online quarterly, Branches, which is a publication that pairs verbal and visual art.