Messenger

by David Thompson

No news for several days:
I went to the florist anyway.
An armful of flowers
means love in any language:
new buds, odours, colours,
fresh beauty shared.

But if today was different?
Outside the shop, sun hit the blooms.
As I paused, a butterfly
slipped through a gap in time,
danced a last poem,
and settled softly
on a white cyclamen
to tell me I was too late.

When I got home,
a message said
you'd left my world that morning.

* * *

David Thompson was a translator, interpreter, editor and publisher with the UN and WHO in New York, Bangkok and Geneva. He has since published two poetry collections: Days of Dark and Light (2021) and Where The Love Is (2023).

---