Butterfly House (for David)

This poem is in the form of a sestina, an obsessive form where the last word of the lines in each 6 line stanza repeat at the end of lines in the next 5 stanzas, except they are in a different place. Then there is a 3 line envoi, which contains the 6 words again.

This is for my grandson David, who loves the Butterfly House at North Anston.

Butterfly House

We watch the flitting blue-winged butterfly
inside the steamy, fecund, glass-walled house
the lazy Cayman and emerald snake
while in his cage the wise and silent owl
watches all the quick, excited children -
What's behind those yellow eyes, we wonder?

The boy, whose bright eyes light up with wonder
points out and reaches for the butterfly
that flutters and spins the heads of children
to probe all nooks and crannies of its house.
Meantime, old Thor – the screeching eagle owl
thinks hard about the green-scaled snake.

The wary children stroke the tiny snake
will they be too scared? We sit and wonder
if they'll prefer to pet the tiny owl
or return to observe the butterfly
who is safely trapped in its humid house
unlike the minds of questioning children

When his slick tongue tastes the tiny children
does the thick bodied, coiled constrictor snake
want to entrap them in his glassy house
and grip and tighten? We can but wonder
as the spotted, transparent butterfly
tries to mimic the graceful, swooping owl

He dreams of his far forest, Thor the Owl
His name is known by all the children
He's not an anonymous butterfly
or deadly like the black-white arrowed snake
although a frightened rabbit would wonder
as it hid in its dark and burrowed house

At last we will leave the Butterfly House
past the cage of the Turkmen Eagle Owl
the place of such beauty, awe and wonder
that so fascinates the smiling children
wave goodbye to the flickery-tongued snake
and, for the final time, the butterfly

Safe in moonlit house the sleeping children
dream of Thor the Owl and slithery snake
and fly in wonder like the butterfly

Tim Fellows 2018