a pastel by Ethel Mortenson Davis
Tag Archives: butterfly
Liberation
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
An old man leaves
a federal prison,
free at last.
He has spent
most of his life
behind bars
for a crime
he did not commit.
The air is as sweet
as any he has known.
He steps into freedom.
This morning
a white butterfly,
with black accents
I could not identify,
was caught in a spider’s web.
I pulled him from
his bondage.
He was still alive
and eager to fly.
He flew into the forest
rich with oxygen,
a freedom he had thought
would never again be his.
And there in the sundrenched trees
he became giddy
on pulsing, cooling waves of air.
Filed under Ethel Mortenson Davis, poems, Poetry
Milkweed Flower, Butterfly, and Honey Bee
photograph by Sonja Bingen, our daughter
Filed under Art, Photography
Black: A Swallowtail Butterfly
a photograph by Sonja Bingen, our daughter
Filed under Art, Photography
Butterfly
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
The yellow and black swallowtail
came to the window
(I told you because
you were looking for a sign—
so you could leave).
The doctor said,
“Hours or weeks.”
We all wept together.
Hours would have been more humane.
Do you remember
when you were little,
and you asked,
“When you die
do you close your eyes
and go to sleep?”
‘Yes,” I said.
Filed under Poetry
fourwindowspress 