6.21.23

Butterfly Effect

after Clint Smith




If a million years ago the butterfly

flew in a different 

direction do you think 

I would have gotten lucky enough 

To meet you at

a different place and time,

maybe we would both

have grown up in the same town

and you were only one house over,

maybe we would have never 

met at all, maybe we wouldn’t have 

even been people,

maybe you would have been

a sunflower and I was a seed 

resting on you,

maybe the butterfly would have

blown the seed into the feather of a 

birds wings which might have

flown me to the other side of 

the ocean, maybe a storm 

would have came

and blown the butterfly towards

the hills where the sun

was still shining 

and the seed

could grow to be a tree

and you would have cut me down 

to be the home that held you,

maybe you would have been

a frog and I a scorpion

and when I asked you to

carry me across this river

you would have done so even

though we both may’ve drown

together, maybe the whole world 

would have caved in

and an asteroid took everything out

and we were never

anything at all

I could keep going

but what I am trying to say is

it breaks my heart

for I hadn’t even had the chance

as I was born in a different time 

in a different place

where you weren’t

the love of my life.