BUTTERFLY NEBULA

Your picture always catches me

Breathless, imagining your

Incredible wingspan—

Three light years

From the sun to

The nearest star.

Crimson and vermillion

Clouds in your wings

Striating, shedding

Your outer layers,

Butterfly emerging

From its chrysalis,

Dying star on its final flight,

Fly faster than light.

Maybe you will escape death.

--
First published in An Assortment of Sky Things, October 2016