I Saw You

I saw you In the tender birth of a summer’s day Emerge, Fragile to a new life, New freedom, Feast delights of nectar On the brambled cliffs. I saw your fluttered dance of courtship In the gladed woods Above the Lyn. Those crowded flights Of summer’s quiet agitation Fade one by one To loneliness. I saw those wings That floated in the easy lightness of an August heat Falter, Chill-damped In a late September mist Above the bouldered shore. I saw you Weary of life once precious, Hesitate along the edge of the western bay, Your wings dip to the water’s gentle swell. You rested brief As though to rise again, Gave in to weakness frail, Surrendered to the ancient sea’s embracing wave, Pale essence of those cycled ways, I saw you die. On holiday in North Devon, watching a tortoiseshell butterfly at Bucks’ Mill as it fluttered along the gentle shore.