Butterfly
Claire's Prayer

Butterfly,
touch lightly upon my breast.
your small lips at rest, drift away from my skin
dreams alight, to lap quietly under your eyelids.
Seaside daisies close gently around your legs,
softly curling in my lap, and your hands,
salty dimpled starfish, pointing
toward the grey sky
 gathering rain.
 
Where are you now?
Resting in the heartbeat of the sea?
Breezes, softer than whispers forming myriad
shells, cools my tired neck, and I hear, I hear, I hear.
Butterfly, our baby, from where did you come?
And how am I, so blessed?
Love's winged butterfly,
summer sunlit rays,
she flies.

karenajoan
1994

Butterfly  Shells

Thousands longing
for a breeze, shelled lips,
whispers, a joy, an ignorance,
sweet nectar drying on our cheeks.
Bless a mothers' hopes, joys - and yet, a tear
how can I bear any fear?  And how am I so blessed?

Touch lightly upon my breast, my butterfly, my prayer.
All our mother's prayers, tears,
​whispered  grooves of shells,
to be carried  on  waves,
of a mothers' hopes.
prayers.

 karenajoan
​2000