Yes, I like the turns here, Max, through the butterfly memories...
Doug
On 2012-12-11, at 4:07 PM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Good Year for Monarchs
>
> - butterflies, that is -
> those with crowned heads? -
> not sure their year is much good.
>
> These butterflies,
> holding all eyes,
> generating smiles -
>
> nifty flying, lightly
> alighting, brightly
> lit against verdure -
>
> but can I be sure
> that beyond this park
> and nearby river bank
>
> wide-winged Monarchs flourish
> as they so do here today?
> Locally, then, their December
>
> is bright. She could tell me,
> my sister, once 'Butterfly queen
> of West Auckland', their habits,
>
> their diet (swan-plant, as I recall),
> their prospects, short-term
> as individuals, long-term
>
> as a thriving species -
> which survives partly by tasting
> nasty to predators.
>
> But Gwenda succumbed
> to the Great Predator
> a few butterfly seasons back,
>
> leaving me guessing
> and grieving, and touched
> when the Monarchs flutter
>
> out of our past into now.
> Haven't we all heard tell
> the Greek word psyche
> means both butterfly and soul?
>
Douglas Barbour
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