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By Angela Trolove
It is easy to differentiate
between a gliding thistle fluff
and a jerky cabbage butterfly
(white petalled, double black freckled)
even though they are both the same size
and weight and texture and both occupy
the lesser territory of the skies,
and either could land on you.
If it bashed into your cheek
it would be as soft and inoffensive
as someone throwing a tissue at you.
A young boy walks the road.
A thistle fluff lands on his pocket,
a cabbage butterfly mounts his elbow.
Aha.
You are at the whim of the wind
he distinguishes
and you, my flapping friend,
are a silky wind.
Angela Trolove is a painting student who lives in Dunedin. She is originally from Oxford, Canterbury.
