I am not yet complete

I am a caterpillar,
a very hungry caterpillar.
In this cocoon for a time

I must learn
which leaves are good for sustenance
And which will slowly kill me

One glorious day I will be released
To be the butterfly I was created to be
But that day is not this one

I am a fish
caught by the fisher of men
I have been released

Not into a bowl
to live a life of comfort and confinement
But into the ocean
to live freely

Swimming among the sharks,
who would love to devour me

I have been slow to learn of the cruel fishermen
That would leave me to drown in their nets
That would feast on my carcass,
and throw away my remains

I am not the prize catch
After their hunger is satisfied,
They will,
and do,
move on to their next.

I understand this now.

I am dust,
and I will be blown away with the wind.
When the life breathed into me,
is taken from me,
returned to its giver,
I will return to the earth
from which I came

I am only one part,
not unlike the millions of others
I am barely a even a factor in the equation

I am almost nothing,

and yet I exist

My thoughts and words mean little, to most
But they are all I have in defining who I am
And if, in the quest for understanding I Am,
I can not be honest

Well then...
I can not truly BE anything worth being at all