The Flight of the Writer

I love it when my adult students take my prompts and go off in their own direction. After reading Billy Collins's poem "The Flight of the Statues," LAW Fraser wrote this piece about butterflies.

The Specimens

The bugs and butterflies were pinned
to the felted cloth,
looking fragile and old.
A slight touch would cause them to
crumble from the pin that was
stuck through their bodies.
In my young mind, I saw them
flying in fields on a sunny day.
It was sad to see the muted colors
they had turned while stored under
glass for fifty years, kept in
a dark drawer.
I wondered where they were caught,
where did they live before they
were captured and killed?
Meanwhile, they stayed in the
box, identified and preserved forever.
Observed by school children studying bugs.
Some of these specimens may be extinct,
some butterflies are almost gone but
these dusty creatures will remain
though we wish they could all
fly away.

LAW Fraser

1/29/2015