Fleeting Butterfly

Sunset gold
alights on a flower.

She flaps once
then opens
in soft triangle
symmetry.

I know how brief
this rest is –
does she?

Startled,
she folds
into the air
in paper-thin
endangered
flight.

Once she is gone
I will see her again
in sunset’s gold

but our children –
they will never
imagine
such fire
on a wing.

I wrote this inspired by the Monarch Butterfly, a species under threat due to climate change, pesticides and logging of wintering grounds.

Many species are heading for extinction today and I wanted to capture the unique beauty of what may be lost from our world.

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