Jim van den Bos
What does the butterfly think
When she’s fluttering about
Being carried by the warm winds
To wondrous new places
Does she worry about her 56 million year old genes
Or her nighttime cousins being depressed
Does she think of taxes, mistakes or vanity
Is her beauty causing nights of shame
Her colors seem to show me the opposite
The blues and pinks and variations of purples
Show audacity in unknowingly owning
The airspace and the surrounding flowers
What does the butterfly think
When she is fluttering around
Beautifully being only herself
Owning wonderful places
I imagine she’s only feeling
What happens now and there
Wherever she has been carried to
By the warm whims of herself