Life itself is a resignation.
Go ask the mouse in talons mid-flight.
Butterflies know your destination.
Swaying, short-lived, in heroic retaliation,
they fluttered in secret one starry night.
Life itself is a resignation.
Unless you are fooled by power and temptation.
Did you really think they wouldn’t fight?
A dozen butterflies know your destination-
one can travel only so far on manipulation-
I’m not going anywhere, darling! You said in spite
of life itself, a resignation.
You believed your culture would be your salvation.
A Pax Romana, or Caesar in white,
yet the butterflies know your destination.
You thought you could rise above conviction,
but their weary wings gained greater height-
pulling you down to a life of resignation-
these brave butterflies knew your destination.
Nancy Byrne Iannucci is the author of Temptation of Wood (Nixes Mate Review 2018) and Goblin Fruit (Impspired, September 2021). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of publications including Gargoyle, Ghost City Press, Clementine Unbound, Dodging the Rain, Three Drops from a Cauldron, 8 Poems, Glass: A Journal of Poetry (Poets Resist), Hobo Camp Review, and Typehouse Literary Magazine. Nancy is a Long Island, NY native who now resides in Troy, NY where she teaches history at the Emma Willard School. Web: https://www.nancybyrneiannucci.com/
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