Realization

All around hung pale silken orbs
As the caterpillar chewed its painful way across the leaf
"If this is life, I'd rather be dead,
What though are these odd shaped balls?"
And as it fell it saw
...Beautiful butterflies breaking free,
Pausing awhile and circling away
Thousands more they fluttered and soared,
In joyful abandon
And in its last throes
The caterpillar knew
The meaning of those orbs...