Butterfly

[eclipse]

The night has a 
Mouth like glass repeating
The movements of the
Butterfly's wings to
Narrate the dreams of
Sleepers.
The Emporer butterfly 
Rests on a flower 
And stone, somewhere a
Messiah sits waiting
To be born.
The brimstone and Adonis 
Blue-pieces of glass from
A cathedral window. The
Red admiral treasurer
Between river, sky with
The currency hidden
From man.
The wishing well cries
For the desire for
The beauty of the 
Swallowtail. Pieris rapae 
Echoes the last light 
To enter the eyes of a
Man on a cross. The collector
Is mining for beauty as 
He watches the green hairstreak, heaven's 
Emerald.
 

[David W. Parsley]

I appreciate the striking imagery in this one, Barry. But unlike ’End of Days’, for example, this reader’s nerves do not tingle with a suspicion of connection between the disparate juxtapositions that is the distinct stamp of a successful French Symbolist piece.  Perhaps the poem tries to net one too many specimens?  Might just be me.

 - David 

[JoelJosol]

The musicality is there. The piece is surreal to me, trying to decipher the glass and the cathedral window and the colors of red, blue and green to fix me into a setting but it is more like a collage where the butterfly and its wings are the common thread. But there is a common symbolism of birth to death by association with the Messiah and the man on a cross too.