Of Walls and Wings
By Brittney Corrigan
I wrote the poem “Sanctuary” as the debate over funding for Trump’s border wall heated up in February, 2019. With the looming possibility of another government shutdown and the president's hubristic declaration of a national emergency, I was drawn to the story of the wall construction that threatened the National Butterfly Center, a private 100-acre nature and wildlife sanctuary in Mission, Texas, which is home to 240 species of butterflies. It is situated across the threshold of the border in the Rio Grande Valley, part of a six-mile stretch of land in the wall’s path, along with several other sacred sites, endangered wildlife habitats, and longtime residents. Many local communities were fighting to protect this stretch of land from the intrusion of the wall, including a local congressman who managed to block construction with a last minute budget provision. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold.
After a district judge rejected suits against it from the federal government as well as the National Butterfly Center, the three-and-a-half mile Rio Grande Valley wall was constructed. In addition, citizens who support the border wall have founded an organization to continue the project with private donations. Marianna Treviño-Wright, the director of the butterfly refuge, has been outspoken in opposition to the wall and its effect on the local area, which she describes as being turned into a “war zone”.
I felt drawn to write about what the construction of the wall says not only about our current government’s lack of regard for the land, the people, and the endangered wildlife it puts in jeopardy but also what it means logistically and symbolically to those who wish to immigrate to the United States. I wanted to use the metamorphosis of a butterfly as a metaphor for the current situation at the U.S./Mexico border.
When a caterpillar reaches the chrysalis stage of its transformation, what happens inside that shell is nothing short of remarkable. The caterpillar does not simply sprout wings and become a butterfly. Its entire body liquifies, releasing enzymes to digest itself and dissolve all of its tissues. Highly organized groups of cells called imaginal discs survive the process and go through rapid cell division, using the remaining protein-rich soup as fuel, to become the new butterfly that eventually emerges.
Thinking about the many endangered butterflies at the Texas sanctuary, I imagined their vulnerability as their bodies changed from one form to another in the shadow of the construction of the wall. As I wrote, I also held in my consciousness the fate of the many refugees at the border, attempting their own transformation of their lives in the face of so many barriers and such hatred. This poem is meant as a plea for the safety of all those lives struggling at the US/Mexico border.