Butterfly

Butterfly is a book-length single poem divided into three sections, each section containing untitled segments. Although the book is meant to be read in order, Butterfly is not a straight narrative; rather it is a lyric sequence grounded in the narrative circumstance of the deaths of a twin brother and mother. As such, the poem is an elegy, an exploration of grief within the particulars of both the twin dyad and the triad of mother and twins. Like all elegies, Butterfly is as much about the bereaved as the lost beloved, exploring family memories and mysteries of loyalty, conflict, love, and identity within the context of one family member's tragic self-destruction.