VEIL

In some calibrated harnessing of sunlight
the butterfly folds and unfolds its wings —

brown, with fractured white bands,
orange flame along the outermost tips.

Nothing stunning — perhaps even banal,
these delicate wings folding and unfolding

like a face in a mirror, some Rorschach mystery,
some lie out of Ovid, some artful deceit.

"Veil" appeared first in Fine Madness (Issue 30, 2007).

by Scott Condon