Prizes

Prizes

Beautiful butterflies, fluttering, fluttering

Right at the keen razor’s edge of my eye;

Clutch them with two meaty fists and you’ll find just how

Easily beautiful butterflies die.

Find another fly to follow.

Rock stars and statesmen and actors can easily

Gather up thousands of wings, unabashed,

Sweep into piles or label them neatly and

Fill a glass case with them, every one smashed.

Bent wings beat bare white walls.

Jefferson, author of that great decree granting

Every man rights as our country took root,

Laughed at the notion that we can find happiness,

Guaranteed none of it—only pursuit.