White Butterflies for Bill MacLean In Japan, butterflies are the souls of the departed

Phillis Gershator

Snow-on-the-mountain
blooms once a year
in time for the holiday season
Snow-on-the-mountain
reminds me of you

talking last year, your last,
about the Persian Gulf
Japanese haiku
and cultivating hedges
of Snow-on-the-mountain

Now that the war is over
and your battle’s done
I sink lower in the chair
so I won’t see white flowers
above the windowsill

but I still see white butterflies
rising and falling
circling the holiday flowers
flying so lightly
over Snow-on-the-mountain

Copyright © Phillis Gershator