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| Photo by Cara Barer |
shimmering.
elusive.
hypnotic.
you stay out
for hours
you are determined.
just one, you say
just one more try
and when you finally
at long long last
grasp one in your fingertips
a delicate, weightless thing
her wings are broken
bent beneath the weight of
your pressing.
trembling
it slowly dawns
that in capturing beauty
you have ruined her
this fragile moment
and now she is
a flightless thing
batting futilely against your palm.
*****************
...ok, so I realize that my poetry recently has seemed perhaps a bit...depressing? But really, a lot of my poetry is about lessons learned. This poem is a thank you for the butterfly.
Hmm... lesson huh... If the butterfly is the moment... and by catching it it is ruined... perhaps the lesson is to appreciate the moment. Sometimes in life we look forward to some things with such anxiety that when they arrive we're overjoyed for a moment, but then forget it, whereas some things we stumble upon and appreciate them more. That's the first thought that spewed from my mind. Or maybe it's more about appreciating beauty at a distance and not trying to force it, but let it be natural, as it should be. Don't be too controlling? Yeah.
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion. I loved the line "batting futilely against your palm" so much that I think the poem should end on that stanza. Not that you cut out what remain; not at all. You can just move that whole three line stanza to the end of the poem. It all still fits:
you realize that
her wings are broken
bent beneath the weight of
your pressing.
you realize that
in capturing beauty
you have ruined her
this fragile moment
and now she is
a flightless thing
batting futilely against your palm
Unless of course you didn't mean to connect the butterfly to the moment, then I suppose that wouldn't work. You might also want to cut out or change the second "you realize that", but that's up to you, as is everything. Love it!