Emma Lipinski

1/07/20

Butterflies

look at her

can you see it?

can you see her?

her long blonde hair curls at the bottom and bounces as she runs

her white sundress goes down to her ankles

so innocent

so pure

she runs to the grass

bare feet

chasing butterflies

not a care in the world

she runs

hops

skips

jumps

and leaps up to grab it

but she doesn’t catch it.

she falls to the ground

tucks and rolls

then opens up like a flower blooming

she laughs

her eyes sparkle

blue like the ocean

so innocent

so pure

Who is she?

don’t you remember?

she’s you.

can you remember the last time you felt that way?

so happy?

so hopeful?

the happiness

the hope

has been replaced by stress and anxiety

life is no longer chasing butterflies because the butterflies are disappearing.

life turned into chasing test scores and grades and who can do better on this and who did better on that.

you don’t have time to chase butterflies because you’re too busy fluffing up your resume with extracurriculars and sports and volunteer hours and jobs.

you come home after long days of school

practice

rehearsal

work

and sit down to do five hours worth of homework and try to sleep

Then it all repeats the next day.

so when would do have time for the butterflies?

you can’t chase them when you have to compete.

compete for everything

compete to be the best

so you can get into the best school

so you can get the best job

so that you can finally be happy like you used to be right?

because you’re gonna be happy after all of this.

aren’t you?

why else would you be doing this?

why else would it be so hard?

you’ve been so busy.

have you even noticed the butterflies disappear?

have you ever wondered where they’ve gone?

I know you can’t,

but take a break for a second

close your eyes,

breathe

there she is running through the grass

her long blonde hair curly at the ends bouncing with every stride

the white sundress flows

so innocent

so pure

she’s chasing butterflies

and you know she won’t catch them all but she doesn’t know that

so don’t tell her

let her hope

and when she falls, don’t worry too much because she’ll turn over

open up to the sun

she’ll laugh and laugh

and when you look into her eyes

her sparkly blue, like ocean eyes

you’ll see butterflies.

© 2020 Emma Lipinski