Such a strange weave today.
Yellow butterfly flits in the flowers
and flaps higher and higher
into the evergreens before I can
get my camera out.
But she’s so pretty!
I round the curve in the path
and look across the river
and see half a dozen officers
in blue, surrounding a body,
I think. Red emergency vehicle.
And Whatcom Falls brings peace
in a white sound of rushing rapids
over boulders, over logs.
And then I hear a man yelling
and cursing the world,
but I can’t see him – is he ahead
of me? or above? or below?
And now the butterfly is back
and this time she poses in the flowers
for me, then flutters away
and is joined by another butterfly.
“Did you see that?” I ask the man
coming down the path towards me.
“The dancing caterpillars?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “Wasn’t that cool?!”

Cussing and rushing
water, a body, and butterflies.
It has been an interesting morning.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell