Petals and Wings

A love song

Within the perimeter of a neighborhood garden nursery, there once thrived a Masquerade rose tree.

From its thorny stems, fragrant red, yellow, and pink blooms sweetened the air.

The beautiful plant’s constant companion was a yellow and black Tiger Swallowtail butterfly.

No one can say if it was the rose tree captivating the butterfly or the other way around, but inseparable they were.

It happened on a balmy day in May, someone purchased the rose tree and to new surroundings it was bound.

The butterfly was determined to find the rose tree, for true it is, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

The butterfly flew from garden to garden hoping to discover the rose tree’s new home.

After five days of searching, the butterfly discovered the rose tree in a garden two miles from the nursery.

As if it were Nature’s God ordaining their reunion, the rose tree and the butterfly were together once more.

On a misty Monday morning in June, two weeks subsequent to finding the rose tree, the butterfly’s life termed full circle.

Gracefully, it glided from flight, landing at the base of the rose tree’s sturdy cane; there it openly lay.

The rose tree let fall from the most beautiful of its blooms several delicate petals.

Each gently came to rest covering the butterfly.

All that live will one day die.

There is in all God’s creation but one animal where death is a temporary inconvenience.

On a bright and sunny morning, three days following its fall, the exquisite Tiger Swallowtail butterfly was again fluttering about the beautiful Masquerade rose tree.

Love shared is boundless.

WC: 269