Emily Jacko
A Harsh Environment for Our Nature
When you see a butterfly for the first time
It will always be the first time.
My wanderer, Danaus Plexxipus my
Monarch. I reach my bouquet of Salvia Sylvestris
and attract
your orange hue to my May night sage. In full sun
we exchanged I love you. I’d cover myself in your
velvet and call my skin a map.
If eye contact were our only language
we could lay naked in the snow. Watch it melt over
us and make winter re-think its timing.
But I woke dry, wilting my soft indigo over your
new yellow. Not our yellow, dim yellow.
A reminder of orange and what
remains.
I became a child again, in a garden
with my hand out. I called to
each warm wind to every shade of you until
the last drip from my sweet-soaked hand
until a new season forced
me inside.
About the writer:
Emily Jacko is an MFA student at Chatham University. She writes about human ideals that are found throughout nature. She also uses extended metaphor in much of her work.
Image: The Butterfly Profile by Conor Mccreedy (1987-). Pigment, oil and enamel on canvas. 100 X 120 cm. 2019. By free license.
