Got Some Good News

"Got Some Good News"

(“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’” Mark 16:15)

I never collected them, but I knew people who did,
butterflies all classified by shapes and size and color.
I followed a friend who captured them, a borrowed net
and plastic jar with holes for my specimen to breathe.
I caught a few, counted the hues, iridescent absorption of
light and reflected blush of foliage, they fluttered a bit
and, unable to escape, usually drooped to the bottom of the jar,
still breathing I think.

It didn’t occur to me then, a child who would rather see any bug
up close, but I think they are more beautiful in their flights together.
(I think they call the swarms or rabbles, and neither fit the glory
of those that transform from caterpillar armies). But I enjoyed
microscopes
and looked up close to see feather legs and scaled wings.

But I think they are beautiful, butterflies in whirlwind bunches,
a Pollock mobile freeformed against the sky.

So, I set free my little detainee and went with the friend I followed
home
for peanut butter sandwiches. He showed me his pins and labels
and I finished my sandwich, walked home quickly to find the bush
where the butterflies filled every gap. Standing upon the blossoms’ center,
they were countless ribbons who waved the breezes with their wings
so I thought someone was surely on their way home.

I have not seen a butterfly collection in decades, dead, dry,
pinned against the faded cardboard. But I did enjoy, and would love
to see it again,
a wedding where, alive and waiting their cue,
dozens, gossamer and streaked, leapt upon the sky from the midst
of a decorated box at just the moment the attendants wiped the
last tear of joy from their eyes.