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has been replaced by stress and anxiety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
