A Butterfly's Response
A Butterfly's Response by Olivia Hand
Out of the cacoon
Just another pattern of wings emerge from the dark place,
the pattern flutters eagerly to fly around the world it lives in.
Slowly fluttering, it sees the sunlight hitting the trees just right,
The clouds moving ever so slowly, as the one above paints the landscape,
The leaves move at the force of the gentle breeze, as the pattern just flutters its wings away
A rapid piece of metal gets in the way, the pattern is no longer in its original landscape.
The Family
A new, different, and different kind of beautiful place is shown to the pattern to flutter its wings away.
It sees humans of all sizes, of all genders, and all colors,
they live, love, and breathe all the same.
It sees two people walk hand in hand, smiling all the way,
as they pass by a man and a smaller human holding a sweet treat in their hands.
Those two cross the street seeing a woman holding a briefcase having a bad day, sitting in a cafe.
The man and the smaller human walk into the cafe,
the small person yells "Momma" to the woman with her hands in her face right over her briefcase.
The Friends
The pattern keeps fluttering, all the same, the sunlight goes dim and turns into bright beautiful colors, as the people walk away, as the metals die down all heading to their special place.
Some people stay and work hard all day,
while some go out to celebrate another day.
A girl all dressed up in red walks shyly to a restaurant wearing a shy smile on her face,
She waves at a girl dressed up in pink, the girl holds her head up and her eyes light up as she goes to say hi, they walk up to the man dressed in black and a girl dressed in purple, and they all walk inside the place.
The Future
A group of young people with the world ahead of them come out of the theater and laugh the night away,
on the other side, another group of young people throws their lives away for a reason they think is valid, but someday will think is stupid.
An older couple walks out of the restaurant enjoying every day,
they see the youngsters watching them dance two different dances through life,
they shake their heads and hope someday the groups will remember this day,
one to cherish and one to learn from.
The Home
The pattern flutters its wings away, passing the big boxes the humans live in all day.
The pattern sees a woman say "It's time to come in, you've been out there all day" to the barking dog talking to its friend behind the fence.
It sees a group of 8, huddled up on the sofa watching a scary movie, screaming at the jumpscares that come their way.
It sees a bird bring back food for her children, snuggling them up close to keep predators away. It sees another mother doing the same, tucking her child away, closing their door to keep them safe.
The Love
It sees a young girl put her phone away smiling at the message sent from someone far from them but close in her heart.
It sees a young boy sneaking into his "best friends'' house to watch her favorite movie, I mean their favorite movie.
The Struggle
The sky gets darker, the moon shines brighter, it sees a terrible sight of a young girl crying the night away, not wanting to see the sun in the morning, it passes the window hoping that its calming pattern helps her pain go away. It passes hoping to see that girl another day.
It passes the apartment of which a baby cries and groaning mom says "I'll get her" and walks to the crib and holds her baby close,
the dad comes behind her in the door frame and smiles at his new family that he has to protect, love, and breathe with for the rest of his days.
The Leaf
The pattern sees one cloud in the dark sky with bright stars,
and flutters its wings up there,
astonished by the fact something so beautiful is natural,
just like all the people, it passes by every day.
It looks down at the landscape below,
all different yet the same,
all filled with living and nonliving things,
living,
loving,
and breathing in some way.
The butterfly leaves to the place where she first came from,
lands on a leaf,
and leaves her eggs there to be born,
hoping one day another pattern will flutter its wings away to see a similar yet ever so changing landscape like she did today.
And that is a butterfly's response to what it saw today.
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