A Butterfly and I

---

A Butterfly and I

Sonnet — An Invocation to The Master #50

Once I met a butterfly
Hovering by a shade at noon,
It alighted on a flower so shy
And slowly sighed its wings down.

Asked I, “O thou of dainty flight
Where purchased the wings of hue,
Who painted thy colours so bright
On thy wings so silken and new?”

It replied, “O an Artist dwells
Upon the far celestial height,
There in leisure conjures the spells
That He inks for me just apt.”

I, “Pray thee, if in thy sojourn
Thou must meet Him,
Plead for me a new bargain
To ink me into a better dream.”

“Like thee to alight 
On each His flower by day,
And by night to dream of light,
Oh to bask ever in His way!”

It said, “For myself a human span,
For thee my bodied artistry,
Then our perfections be more than one
These I shall ask for me and thee.”

And then we in unison prayed,
“O Thou, Father of stars and us,
By Thy grace in us descended
Shall be both our ascendance.”

“And then in Thy lair’s corner
We shall colour Thy view forever.”