I sit by my window and watch her.
I know that we are kindred spirits,
this wonder of nature,
this butterfly and me.
We have the same nature.
For all my life, like her,
I have wandered from flower to flower
enticed by life’s magnificent colors and exotic perfumes.

Always abandoning what I had before me
for the promise of ever sweeter nectar,
never cherishing what I had.
And just as she will be stung
by the cold rain and buffeted by the harsh winds
of a sudden summer thunderstorm,
my heart is pricked by the loneliness of lost love
and cast about by the guilt of unfulfilled potential.

As she flies away
to ever more promising meadows
I long to flee with her,
but my twilight has come.
My golden summers have faded into autumn.
I bid her good journey
and turn from the window knowing
that we are both what we were destined to be.

Copyright 2003 Bobbi Duffy