SOFT AS

Photo by S. Auberle

On a day when the earth is lusty with spring,
ducks are courting, flashing bills of neon blue.
An elegant merganser preens, butterflies
swoop and dazzle, and we sit beneath an old pine,
bark warm and vanilla-scented, and feast
on apples and cheese.  A small lizard watches,
eyes full of reptilian hungers.  In the rush
of this wild, runaway life, my heart is drenched
in light.  I am soft as a butterfly's breath.

~a rewrite of the poem "Birthday" from Crow Ink~