Playing Now: Butterflies and New Romantic Musical

A most wonderful thing, natural observation Copulating on the wing, butterflies on mission Mostly pure white on this summer day –welcome cool - Like delicious Autumn, but breaking the rule Of long hot summers on the Eastern Cape Mostly white butterflies after the rains; none escape Being pursued. I’ve seen singles dart into the bush Made by a clump of Mulberry saplings, win mate or friend The shady vale next my window is a love-ly battleground! Uncoupled after one mating as with birds against sky Those single white missiles shoot faster and high To locate another unhitched butterfly. And how! Threesomes are found But not for long – two seem to enter the smallest circle Until Number Three has to leave, shooting off like missile … Until the most special sight, a string of couples closely Crisscrossing the spaces among the trees like confetti (Two insects - smaller, yellower - dance closer to the ground Just to remind us, earth has other lives in reproduction) I see the whites circle and circle in addictive lovemaking Often alighting on branches of the neem (we call slingeberry) trees O how wonderful, beautiful, they render this youthful afternoon As if twilight has come: “NEW ROMANTIC MUSICAL starting SOON”