Once, there was a man who wanted so much to love that he
snuggled butterfly bodies back into a cocoon
like a small manila folder. He married their two existences together
and braided her antennae to signify an engagement ring –
never kissing, not as a husband and wife would
just would light up the nerves below his skin any time he showed
his butterfly what became of
the earth outside of air holes. In a way, he lived there, too –
breathed through the sheer fabric of butterfly wings.
He knew how to love, every eyelash looked like her flying again.