Purple Emperor (Poetry)

Found on a pavement
husk still glittering
chivvied by each gust
from cars speeding by
a dead butterfly

Retrieved for beauty
and preservation
its wings still perfect
thin legs tucked fragile
beneath its body

It felt so weightless
so insubstantial
this hollow being
that had been living
and once mastered flight

Since when poised dreaming
on a plastic leaf
safe in the corner
of a windowsill
there the sun finds it

And it waits there still
for resurrection
the seasons passing
its purple fading
all memory gone