Metamorphisis

                                            Metamorphisis



          She gave a sigh as she looked around at her surroundings. She was in her favorite place, as she pensively woofed down her favorite meal. The season was coming to an end. The leaves have already transformed into an array of colors. the multitude of autumn amber shades, burst of burnt oranges, rust, and browns. It has all become  a beautiful, patchwork down, on the ground, enveloping it in warmth as the chill, hints the coming of a new season.
          This season was wonderful, she didn't want it to end. She hadn't thought  about it before, but realized she ate a lot. It was a okay, in exchange she grew! She was almost four feet! She turned and admired her the hammock she made herself, for her little hideaway, her private world. She really enjoyed the art of spinning and weaving. She was quite proud of herself. She had eaten so much she was packed. An irresitable urge to sleep overcame her, She wanted to stay awake, she wanted this bliss to never end. It was the best season she ever had.
          Everything looked more beautiful than usual. As she thought all these thoughts, she laid in the hammock and nodded off. She began to dream. She dreamt she was growing up and her body was changing and her skin was smoothing out to a beautiful brown color.She was snug as a bug in her embryotic hammock and went into a deep sleep.She dreamt on. and even though it is disconcerting she watched,in awe. her entire body was being dismembered and reassembled.
            She dreamt of this white stuff that fell from the heavens and things were cold. She worried not, she was warm and safe. She didn't know how long she slept, but the feeling of confinement was overwhelming, and as when one is having a nightmare she began to struggle. She couldn't really see in the dark. She believed she had entangled herself in the hammock in her sleep. She was kicking and clawing frantically, in the air, slowly and laborously with frquent pauses to gather strenth she was out of. She took a deep breath. On her back were two crumpled objects, wrinkled like the kernel of a walnut. She jerks herself free, body trembling with convulsive shudders. She can feel her blood pumping into the network of her veins within the bags that were slowly expanding.
            The blurred pattern, on the outside of these appendages, enlarges and becomes focused blotches; swell into miraculously detailed eye-spots. Within half an hour the 'wings' are fully distended, so that the two sides of the bags meet flat against one another enclosing the vein between them. The veins themselves are still soft, gradually her blood is drawn back into her body and the vein hardens into rigid struts that will give the wings strength. She slowly moved them apart to show the world for the first time the unblemished perfection of its' shimmmering color, her perfect body unfurled.
              She stood there looking at her reflection on the mirrorlike lake and awaits the dawn of her first day. A warm spring breeze passes and whispering said,
" My what a beautiful creature you are, who are you?" She smiled and said aloud,
" I am Iamana" and flew away.


by Helen R. Gonzalez
copyright c 2007