About the Caterpillars
Lisa Mottolo
I pray for something not too cliché. Let’s not say something that
boils down to “they transform into something beautiful and
flightful and so can you!” because that would be so
disappointing that I would stop reading for weeks. Let’s not kid
ourselves. We are not growing wings. We must come to terms
with the boundaries of being human. From birth to death, we are
reading and rereading the book of “how not to succumb to
starvation” and/or the book of “how not to succumb to
mediocrity.” Maybe the caterpillars would state “we never said
losing our caterpillar bodies was worth being able to fly. Not
everyone wishes to fly with fragile wings.” Perhaps they would
state, “death is the only mode of transformation.” Or do
caterpillars not speak in such clichés? Don’t let me do this to
them or myself. I really want to know how caterpillars feel about
the whole butterfly thing.
about the writer
Lisa Mottolo studied copyediting at UC San Diego and is the Project Manager for Atmosphere Press. She is from upstate New York and currently lives in Austin, Texas. Her writing is published or is forthcoming in Typishly, North of Oxford, Barren Magazine, Coffin Bell Journal, and New Feathers Anthology.