Celeste Gunnell-Joyce. Chrysalis

i couldn’t name what we have.  

its  

wholeness dissolves 

at the brush of words

 like the wings 

of butterflies, dis-

assembled, reassembled 

each time you touch me there  

are things best left unsaid 

until to breathe  

is to exhale the truth  

so pure it fills your lungs 

as it leaves mine.  

what we have can only live

in the perfection of 

our silence, truest of all

with no name.

 no talking now.

i will carry it  

in my belly,  

a chrysalis,  

unhatched. 

Celeste Gunnell-Joyce has been writing since she learned to read. She followed her love of words to McGill, where she studies Theatre and Literature. She loves to play with language and form in her writing in order to explore the themes of home, love and identity.