Symmetry in Asymmetry
The fawn
Shakes off the butterfly
And sleeps again.
~ Issa
A sacred symmetry descends upon
The drowsiness of spots, haphazard white,
Set out on red brown pelt. The sleeping fawn
Is wakened by the slightest touch as light
As an imagined ghost inside a dream.
It comes from feet attached to perfect shape
And balanced patterns on the wings that gleam
With sunshine’s beauty on a silk-made crepe.
Their flits, irregular, are like those spots
The legs have settled on. Wings’ wanton path
Has led them to his fur and ovals dots.
The tiny twitching shows his tiny wrath.
..The insect flies away, side leaps, lurch, lurch,
….To find a less demanding, dreamless, perch.
~ Phillip Whidden
