There’s frenzy in the kitchen: <br />a pale yellow brimstone butterfly, frantic - <br />fluttering dashes, dives, attacks, <br />swerves and retreats <br />from the naked light-bulb, <br />again and again drawn by <br />(is it her?) irresistible beauteous light, <br />repelled by the passionate heat of (her) <br />denying presence, cold to her lover… <br /> <br />outside, I’d give it but a glance; <br />here inside, the agitation is unnerving, <br />drawing me in as if it bears <br />a metaphor for life.. <br />a lover that will not learn <br />that what it most desires <br />is not to be fulfilled.. <br /> <br />I grab a kitchen sieve, <br />wave it ineffectively, <br />now talking to the creature like a baby <br />in some mortal danger – <br />‘we’re going to save you..’ ‘we’re going to save you..’ <br /> <br />suddenly the butterfly, <br />as if I had uttered the purest prayer (as indeed I had) , <br />settles in an instant upon the sieve’s outside, <br />all passion spent, and <br />totally at peace; allows <br />my careful passage to the open air; <br /> <br />leaving some metaphor unformed, <br />more unresolved questions of myself <br />than poetry may yield<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0015-frenzy/
