Butterfly

Twisting wings gossamer thin

Paint strokes through the air

You always loved their beauty

Flying high without a care

Colors sparked and dazzled

Beneath a soaring sun

Yet they weren't quite as quick as you

You took them at a run

And popped a lid above their heads

Glass walls beneath their feet

You brought them home and looked them up

Found what they'd like to eat

Decapitated flower heads

And pulled up grass in blades

Sugar water in a cup

As long as they behaved

Inside your room they didn't dance

No space to spiral high

Fluorescent lights had dimmed their glow

And one by one they died

You ran from page to page this time

Trying to outpace the end

To find a way to fix their hearts

As if they could pretend

The clouds drawn on your walls were home

The bulbs their lonely sun

Every touch withered them out

Until there just was one

It didn't flap its feeble wings

It didn't light your soul

It was a bug inside a jar

You couldn't make it whole

Perhaps you could have set it free

One last chance to leap and fly

Your hands were too tight on the jar

And trapped butterflies die