Butterfly with Parachute (Stephen Burt)

Woo, what a surprise I got when I opened poems.com looking for today's post. For today's poem was written by my English professor at Macalester! He's moved on to Harvard, but I loved taking his classes at Mac. He was such a light for poetry. Stoked my enthusiasm for the stuff.

Anyways, in the poem he writes about his son drawing. He draws a butterfly (Burt does a fantastic job writing the drawing) and then gives the butterfly a parachute.

A different kid's butterfly sans parachute.

I like how he describes his son's drawing - "four oblongs the size and color of popsicles" - accurate and child-like. I also like how he sums it up at the end - telling a why for the parachute, which is also telling the why of drawing and therefore the why of writing, of any creation. 

Favorite line: "green apple, toasted coconut and grape, / flanked, two per side, by billowing valentine hearts"