Hurrah for September! It's my b-day month, and the SCBWI Dakotas 2021 Fall Conference is coming up soon. Assuming I can free my hand from cat hugs, I plan to send Bad Species off on the sea of submissions in a few weeks. I think it's been at least FIVE years since I've tried querying a novel, and I'm honestly kind of excited to see where my stories take me now . . . until I hit the reefs of rejection! I'm ready.
I've been sharing poems I wrote a long time ago on Wattpad for fun, and I think this one suits my mood perfectly:
The Swallowtail
Undaunted by the scorner’s scoffs,
The nosy earwig, or the multi-pedian
Myriapods of discontent—
She
Believed in flying.
Her essence distilled in threads,
Tender-binding, silken strands
That wrapped her plump, ember-body
Round and true (As a seed).
Moon and sun orbited her cocoon,
Stars trailed by in a milky gauze;
A new world evolved within a Word.
At last,
Lucency called her out.
So, leaving the ground behind
For the bliss of air-spent ways—
She gave her grace to wings.