life’s a fragile butterfly

Ashley Kim

i peek through my attic window

and the paper town flickers

people are saturated by their movements–

butterflies flap around and follow each figure with love, with intensity

i look up

and across to the tall hospital sourly injected with bodies

wondering how many people died tonight

then hoping it was not painful, but death

is not usually like that, i know, and

it was the city hospital so brutal suffering

is inevitable–

butterflies flutter and falter around the building like moths

slamming their bodies on doors of homes with no intention

of letting them in; left outside to fry themselves with light

 

inside, i ache for a life

bigger than the

palm of my hand

bigger than the

cherry mint i plop on my tongue

bigger than the

eyelash i blow off the tip of my finger,

then shut my eyes for, while wishing for the heart’s most longing desire–

oh, but, life’s a fragile butterfly, a fragile butterfly,

a butterfly too fragile

to even hold