Dear Maxine, Never Trust a Butterfly

[Lightning Rod]

The problem IS
you DO trust me
and it pisses you off
because it doesn't fit
with your little plan
Daddy's Always Dangerous
you see? or don't you?
that's why I anger you so
because you can depend
on my trustworthyness
it's like clockwork
orange juice in the morning
every morning sure
as the sun also rises
you can count on my travesty
hard as it is
to create your legend
and protect your reputation
in the same breath
inhaling and exhaling
at once
dreams awake and walking
going while coming
in the same breath
I say I love you

you can't trust me
any more than
a dream trusts the morning
you can't trust me
to go soft in mid stroke
nope, you just can't trust
a man with such bad judgment
that he loves you anyway
it wouldn't fit the narrative

So, sorry to disappoint you
I would be a rat if I could
but I won't tell you lies
the world doesn't vanish
when you close your eyes

It's OK not to trust me
why should you?
I wasn't man enough
to kill you when I was so close
I could distinguish
which of the four chambers
of your heart was signaling
and with my earlobe feel
the blood throb in your jugular
the way a mother feels
her baby kicking
yes, I should have
probably killed you then
at the height of our rapture
when your guard was down
and I could capture
your breath in my hand
like a little bird naked
in the nest as if trust
hadn't been invented yet
you would have died happy
a blissful virgin death
if I had been man enough
to kill you then
It's no wonder you don't trust me

did I tell you the story
of the princess and the butterfly?
he came and lit on her nose one day
at the very top of her nose, the regal part
right between her eyes
so close she couldn't see him
until he opened his wings and then
she thought she was dreaming or on LSD
colors and patterns as the sun shone through
the butterfly's wings she thought it was magic
as he languidly opened and closed his wings
the princess admired the butterfly
but she didn't trust him
she suspected that he had not
always been a butterfly
but the butterfly didn't care
whether the princess trusted him
or not because the only reason
he was there was to sip her tears
not flowing tears of sorrow or pain
not tears of rage or anger
not even tears of laughter
just ordinary everyday moisture tears
the ones we need to blink and wear contact lenses
he sipped those hum-drum tears of everyday life like a butterfly sips nectar
from a rose with the curly straw he calls a nose
to him they tasted like a dirty martini
with just a hint of olive oil and salty vinegar
sometimes he became so drunk on her tears
that he would sit on the princess's nose for hours
looking into her eyes as if they were in love
maybe it was love, but who can say
what is love anyway? and what is trust?

One day the butterfly said to the princess
"Why do you only trust me to look into your eyes?"
"They told me you were a worm," the princess said
"you are a butterfly now and your wings are pretty in the sun, but if you were a worm yesterday, what might you be tomorrow?"
"Sounds like you have trust issues, lady" said the butterfly and flew away. We don't know what happened to the butterfly, because, after all, no one knows what butterflies become after they have been butterflies, but the princess was sad that the butterfly didn't come anymore and sit on her nose in the sun and share his colors while he drank her tears.

Do you trust me to tell you fairy tales?

toots the monarch

[Sue Littleton]

What I really, really liked about this poem was the fairy tale at the end ... You said it all righ there.