like butterflies

cassia
cassia Posts: 277
edited July 2004 in Poetry, Prose, Music & Art
LIKE BUTTERFLIES

When I pick you up at the airport
your voice is tinged with sadness.
Butterflies, you say, only live
for two weeks.

Two weeks--you're bummed
that something so fantastically
beautiful

could vanish from this earth
so suddenly.

Outside the lavafields in Oregon
baby monarchs swarm the highway,
heartbreakingly
dashing into windshields and bumpers,
as they test erratic wings.

And somewhere tropical, an exquisite
purple hair-streaked thecla
lands on a giant leaf

for the very last time, wingtips
exhausted yet still tufted
as a violet lynx.

Like angels and Icarus,
the Blind Melon boy, himself a butterfly,
and keeper of our bee-girl joy,
couldn't keep his cheeks dry that day,
flying too close to the sun
of his unbelievable pain.

Later that week, I find a card
magically painted with a lion
surrounded by blue butterflies.

I recall listening to Eddie in Italy,
telling the crowd in his velvety roar
how we made him feel like a lion.

How when he sings
"hearts and thoughts they fade away"
we cling to what remains, the raw
reverberations of twilight tipped
to the color of wings.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • CranMalReign
    CranMalReign Posts: 1,928
    This poem progresses quite gently through an array of images, mindsets, and ideas. I'm reminded of a dear friend of mine who writes using much the same imagery and language as this.

    I think the topics you explored, intermingled while separate, are brought together in a sort of continuum that makes it a little more unique in my readings.

    Well done.
    • 98 Pgh
    • 00 Pgh
    • 03 Pgh|Philly|PSU|Camden 1+2|Hershey
    • 04 Boston 1|Reading
    • 05 Philly
    • 06 Camden 1+2|Pgh
    • 08 Camden 1+2|Hartford|Mansfield 2
    • 09 Philly 1 [EV]|Toronto|Spectrum 1-4
    • 10 Cleveland|Buffalo
    • 11 Philly [EV]|PJ20
    • 12 Philly
    • 13 London|Pgh|Buff|Philly 1+2|Balt
    • 14 Cincy|StL
    • 16 Philly 1+2|Philly 2 [TotD]
    • 18 Boston 1+2
  • Radar(Baba)O'Riley
    Radar(Baba)O'Riley Posts: 947
    like . . .

    beauty

    I wasn't expecting it to end with Eddie in Italy, but I'm glad it did.
  • cassia
    cassia Posts: 277
    thank you, CMR do see reply/slow motion
  • dyaogirl
    dyaogirl Posts: 138
    wing tipped wonder
    as we listen to eddie roar....

    transforamtion from alone
    to oneness..
    '..... Ah! A perfect illustration of the poststructuralist paradox. Does the signifier "Merlot" correspond with the 'truth' of the bottle I polished off last night, or do we hold in our thoughts a different "signified" of bottle-of-Merlot-ness? Perhaps we're dreaming of the same bottle!" -FinsburyParkCarrots

  • cassia
    cassia Posts: 277
    yes
    the fireshivers of becoming

    our joint-solitude
    the

    combined being we make in the sun

    as we transmute

    from all alone
    to

    all one

    *

    peace~
  • BhagavadGita
    BhagavadGita Posts: 1,748
    do lions mate with more than one female?
  • cassia
    cassia Posts: 277
    well lions are very sezzy,
    when dah girls are in heat
    each lioness can take like five guys
    and the girls sometimes don't sleep
    for like three days...
    and every fifteen minutes whoa
    talk 'bout cat scratch fevah

    so don't think there's any
    dreamy-eyed romanticism, there
    besides, the male big cats
    have barbed...
    you know....
  • BhagavadGita
    BhagavadGita Posts: 1,748
    Originally posted by cassia
    well lions are very sezzy,
    when dah girls are in heat
    each lioness can take like five guys
    and the girls sometimes don't sleep
    for like three days...
    and every fifteen minutes whoa
    talk 'bout cat scratch fevah

    so don't think there's any
    dreamy-eyed romanticism, there
    besides, the male big cats
    have barbed...
    you know....



    ahhhhhh.
    sigh
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Yes, yes.

    Dear cassia.

    :)
  • exhale
    exhale Posts: 185
    I think I´ve found a new source for my inspiration here...

    I love butterflies...

    thank you for sharing cassia
    Write. Wind each new thought upon the stream;
    and in its contradiction of response,
    Or seeming stagnance, see that rippled gleam
    That might suggest true movement. If you sense
    a hidden wave in what seems blanket still,
    Write more, wind each desire, and you'll see
    The willows nod and rustle, and you will
    hear the rushing babble of the free
    gush of water, brimming, charged with light
    That is your reader's understanding heart.
  • suede
    suede Posts: 247
    very cool cassia...it figures, you're from Detroit! :D
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Originally posted by suede
    very cool cassia...it figures, you're from Detroit! :D

    She's a California girl really, near Pasadena way..

    ;)

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