William

Mahar

Photos: Frank DiMeo unless otherwise notedMusic score for “Then” by Christopher Morgan Loy

The ButterflyThen

For my Mother and Father

See how the monarch butterflysuch a slight sliver of paperups and turns and ups:

How he seems sooblivious to the steep staggerings of buildingsand the ruinous lights of the brook:

3000 miles to goand wings so light with going.

THE BUTTERFLY

McClane’s new collection of essays, Color: Essays onRace, Family, and History,will appear in 2007.

Kenneth A. McClane Jr.English

For more information:E-mail: kam6@cornell.edu

From Take Five: Collected Poems,1971–1986 (New York: GreenwoodPress, 1988).

THEN

wild corn does a yellow dancefor the crow

flying to bethere when

the river lights, and the insectssteady as jazz

finger the swing vinesdown.

ChristopherMorganLoy

Kenneth McClaneEnglish