Popcorn

 the golden kernels spin

round and round

faster and faster

until finally they explode. 

first one, 

then a sea of white

floods up, out, and into my bowl.

some, overwhelmed by the sheer delight of flight,

leap out of the bowl 

and onto the floor. 

but what about the rest? 

why do some kernels pop and not others? 

are they too afraid of change? 

bound by fear to spin endlessly

getting hotter and hotter

'til one day

the chance of flight is gone? 

or are they just unable? 

did something happen long ago,

rendering them unable to metamorphosize?

i do not have answers

so instead i mourn for them

even as i empty them into the compost

and eat their transformed friends.