Student Art

For Marcel Marceau

On an empty stage, out of space,
The air around you fills with butterflies.
We watch them blowing across your face,
Wings touch your eyes,
Antennae quiver.
Wherever you look
A cloud is in flight,
Above you, behind your head
Sweeping off to escape.
Then one alights,
Near enough for net to cover.
What a twisting and turning thing!
Exhausted and fluttering,
Caught in a hand that breathes like a wing,
Prison and prisoner —
Poet and poem —
And the whole that is suddenly nothing.


Butterflies, by Katherine Garrison Chapin


I've been contemplating this piece of student art in a display case when I go to pick up my class from lunch in the cafeteria, so today I decided to take a photo.

And as it turns out, I was also talking with my son about Marcel Marceau recently. I don't see a resurgence of his popularity coming any time soon, but I do consider myself fortunate to have seen him live when I was young. 

Here's a link to his performance referenced in the poem. No reason to think the artist had this in mind when creating their piece, but you never know.