And You Thought

By Antonio Rodrigues

And you thought you were a butterfly,

Monarch of all you surveyed,

And you thought the flowers bowed,

paying obeisance, feeding your ego,

The wind was mightier, but still you pretended!

And you thought you were a firefly,

Illuminating a stark, dark, naked world,

And you thought your brilliance outshone stars,

Yet you dared not fly too close to the sun!

Now, colours of life, they slowly fade,

And your once iridescent wings,

Now wrap you like a sallow, pitted shroud,

And your sham theatrics fail like melted wax.

And you know now that you served your purpose,

That Nature has lost its enthusiasm

For your intense flitting, sporadic lightning

In a threatening sky, brief interludes of luminosity.

Final return to the elements – earth, fire, wind.

By Antonio Rodrigues