LIKE BUTTERFLIES

by John Herlihy

What are we, you may wonder?
We have no special fame.
What are we called, you may ask?
We have no unusual name.

We float;
We flutter;
We are on the fly;
Like rabbits, we hop from earth to sky.
We hope;
We desire;
We sit on our perch;
After a gentle rain, we fly through the air to dry.

We touch,
But are not touched.
We sing,
But are not sung.
We soar,
But do not bore.
We reach down deep
Into the heart’s core,
But we do not arrive
At the soul’s floor.

We are chivalrous,
We are sad.
We are virtuous,
We are bad.
We are frivolous,
We are glad.
We are villainous,
We are mad
In false hopes clad.

We gather nectar
From every sun-drenched flower.
We spill the seed
Across every bower.
We follow the vector
In every line of fire.
We seek to breed
In our effort to sire.

We are weightless as air,
Light as feathers in flight.
We envision the world
Through the mystery of sight.
We are as colorless as water
And just as full of light.
We are privy to the world’s might
defying the law of gravity in our flight.

We are hand-painted
By the Divine Touch.
With all the colors of the rainbow,
He has given us that much.
We are multi-colored against the grey sky,
As we, through the heavens, idly wander and ply.
We are invisible beings,
Transparent in the celestial blush,
Though we are born on spindly legs,
Playing like children with skinny pegs.

What are we, you ask again?
What are we all-all-all about,
You stammer then?
We will be butterflies,
The plodding caterpillar said.
Heedless and idle,
Moving in fits and starts,
Heaving the wall of the chrysalis
Before breaking it into parts.
We come from a cocoon,
Where we wax and wane,
Like the seasons of the moon
Enclosed in a picture frame.

What are we, you ask one last time?
We are no more than our thoughts,
The nodding human said.
Floating, flitting, fluttering, free,
Wandering like butterflies
Through the barren tree,
Reaching far into celestial realms
In the light of upper worlds
And deep into the nether regions
Of the darkest underworld.

Stay nearby, do not depart;
Do not wander far from your heart.
Steady the course, take life’s part,
Fulfill the promise we had at the start,
As we search for our true destiny,
Within the mystery life has to impart.