Monday, July 21, 2025

One of the Butterflies


The trouble with pleasure is in the timing
 it can overtake me without warning
 and be gone before I know it is here
 it can stand facing me unrecognized
 while I am remembering somewhere else
 in another age or someone not seen
 for years and never to be seen again
 in this world and it seems that I cherish
 only now a joy I was not aware of
 when it was here although it remains
 out of reach and will not be caught or named
 or called back and if I could make it stay
 as I want to it would turn into pain


--W.S. Merwin