The Poet
The Poem
IN FLIGHT WITH BUTTERFLIES
- Richard Inya
Not the flowers that bloomed
Not the air – serene and fresh
Offered the ambiance of rest –
But butterflies in fluttering flight
Floating, dancing to mute tunes
Held my eyes and lulled my mind
The first was a beam of blue rays –
Swimming gleefully in the mid-sky
Cyan dots patterned her wings –
Opening wide like the full petals
Of a hale and hearty hibiscus
Another from a near distance
Was a zebra – monochrome silk –
A spectrum of faded tones
Each stripe was a quiet stream
Coursing to meet an unknown river
Next came the peacock – coy –
Flying in no direction – random –
Going where the wind led
In shyness, none can be shyer
Than a butterfly in undecided flight
Touching everything, holding onto none
There squirmed the goldfish – glossy
In lively lines and a few faint ones
Like thoughts hidden in watermarks
She came shimmering before my face
And at the breezy overture of the wind
Struggled like a vessel tossed under
The arm of a vaulting sea – struggling
The last in my view was a lone girl
Flapping, brimming with excitement
Like the sweetheart of a doting lover
In plush velvety she was half-clad like
A dragon-fly, yet bejeweled with grace
There lay many dreams in her eyes
As she explored the brow of a leaf
Green, patterned after the design
On my mother’s seasonal dress
The one she was dressed in that day
She rode on a stretcher into the mortuary
Trapped at the confluence of feelings
I gaped at the helms of her wings
Studded with ornaments deluxe and rare
And while my eyes wandered around her
A lizard caught her between his lips
And what was left of beauty was dust
The Story
The above poem was inspired by a reflection on the vanity of human struggles, crass quest for wealth and power. I thought deeply about this, especially how it happens that once one's eyes are shut in death, everything about them ends. Here, beauty and admiration of such held the poet's attention as he watched different butterflies in their flight in his garden. From the last stanza, one can see how the most admirable of them ended up in the mouth of a lizard. That's how we relate with life.
Source:
APNETi
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