In a summer season

In a summer season
On an outstretched hand
A butterfly alights.

Wings warmed by sunlight
fan the air,
delicate semaphores of meaning.

Time is elastic when the
heart is warmed.
Round the axis of a moment memories revolve.

Then there is the loss.
The whispered air,
A weightlessness upon the palm,
Bright confetti weaving long, live stitches in the air,
receding fast between the
petalled nectaries.

I return to who and what I am,
no more a resting place
for metamorphing beauty.

Poorer for the loss am I,
But richer for the day.


(c) A McN



Friendships come unexpectedly and sometimes go unexpectedly too. Delight in the pleasure friendships bring and yet hold them gently. We never own friends, we only borrow the complex and unpredictable privilege of sharing in another's life for a time.