A butterfly flew into my my heart
Wings beating against
The walls of the fleshy cage
It fluttered there like love
Quickening as I followed it
Chasing phantom pheromones
Like thoughts flying around my head
Flitting from one to the other
For no discernible reason
How many flaps of the wing
Through the endless now of time
Is the butterfly allotted
Flying free from its sarcophagus
On new wings soaring to the sun
Or across oceans a winged salmon
Miles from the vast sea
Flapping its way over torrent and rock
To the tiny stream in the woods
From whence it came
Home at last to spawn and die
Completing the cycle
Filling every nook
With its stubborn struggle
Evolution in its blood driving it
To do nature’s work of
Creating the future out of
This uncertain afternoon