How they flutter
through the air, those feet;
like a butterfly’s wings;


though it is said
in Science
an action so small as the flick
of butterfly wings
may cause a catastrophic disaster
half-way round the world,

were the newscaster to announce today
that an earthquake
has pulverised Tokyo,
or that another tsunami
is invading the Indonesian coast,
or that, so long now quiescent,
Mount St. Helen’s is spouting down
once more
on Washington,

for their beauty,
I could not wish
the quelling of their flight;
could order
no net cast over them,
not those feet
like a butterfly’s wings.