Butterfly Release in the Park: Service of Remembrance, Hospice Of The Big Country*

Edward Parker / WWF-Canon: https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/monarch-butterfly

The Grieving who have come
are not here for a kaleidoscope
of butterflies, the sky filled

with outrageous flutterings–
pigment paints, dyes, inks,
other colors delicate as rainbows:

Leafwing Butterfly, Green-banded
Swallowtail, Malachite, Parides tros,
Colias wiskotti, Colias electo,

Spicebush Swallowtail,
Great Spangled Fritillary,
Delias aruna. No, they wait

in line for the Monarch
(Danaus plexippus), its “sleepy
transformation”–hibernation

to metamorphosis: death, burial,
resurrection. Each receives
a personal envelope they open

with care, the butterfly numb
from the cool temperature,
now warming to stutter alive

in the palm of a child, parent,
spouse, watching, a further vigil
at the side of their loved one,

waiting for wings to open,
begin to beat, the miracle
for months they had prayed for.