August Child / Marion Strobel

August Child

Harold Harvey (1874–1941), Two young girls

 with a butterfly, 1929. Wikimedia Commons.

She would watch a butterfly
Yellow-filmed against the sun,
Blue against the sky.

She would keep the broken wings –
There were gold ones, there was one
Brown with scarlet rings.

And no matter if the heat
Ran like flame upon the land,
She was there, and sweet.

Color moving, color drifting
Was her yellow dress. Her hand
Was color lifting.

 
With the sky more blue than blue,
She was more and less than true,
Who was always more than fair
Butterflied upon the air.

~~
Marion Strobel (1895-1967)
from Poetry, February 1928

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]

Marion Strobel biography