CHILD AND BUTTERFLY

BY: Don David Scott aka Archimendes

As a child I walked restlessly
Along the shore of expectation
When--all at once--you caught my eye
I watched you flutter by, O butterfly

Your wings brushed my lips
And you came to rest on my heart
Then the rain began to fall
And I saw you dance

Never have I seen one
So entranced by the rain
So free and open
And graceful in flight

For a time I knew only you
And we shared those moments
As if we were one;
Then I gazed at the sand

As if pushed by some unseen hand
I began to build sand castles
While you flew round and round me
(But I was lost deep in thought)

Each time you came into view
It seemed I saw something new
And when you vanished behind me
You were gone from my mind

Each castle I would construct
Was more elaborate than the last
I heard the soft flutter of wings
Which only seemed like buzzing

Then you hit me head on
With the full force of your body
Yet you could not move me
Though you tried and tried

The sky began to darken
And the clouds rolled in
While the ocean came toward me
You quietly went away

The tide came in quickly
And the castles vanished in the sea
A cold wind whipped the water
And a chill came over me

Something was gone forever
But I could not remember what
That day I turned my back on beaches
That day I began to shun the rain

Now I am much older
And I recall who I lost that day
I know why I feared beaches
I know why I hated the rain

For once I held your fragile life
In the palm of my cold hand
But one cannot both hold butterflies
And build castles in the sand

I can't believe I let you go
That day on the shore
And I wonder, butterfly O butterfly
Do you still celebrate the rain?



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