Butterflies

It started with the butterflies;

hundreds of them stuck on pins

in deep, glass-fronted

Victorian frames.

In the hallway adjacent

the check-in counters

and the TSA

security lanes at SFO.

I wondered, how many of them

are now extinct?
And how many more
will disappear next week?

My shoes are brightly colored

like many tropical species.

They looked a bit like

those specimens in the hall

as they sat in the gray tray

waiting to enter the X-ray scanner.

My knapsack with the cremains

was pulled aside of course

and a TSA officer took out

a kit with little squares

to pick up any residue

from the box of ashes.

She then applied clear drops

on some and blue drops

on others. The results

were negative of course.

I said this is fascinating.

She said, yeah I loved

chemistry in high school,

physics, though, forget it.

Four movies and two meals later

the Airbus docked at the jetway

in Hong Kong and just before

the doors were opened,

the Captain announced,

Due to a security situation

all flights from Hong Kong

have been cancelled.

So we slept in chairs

or on the floor waiting

for twelve hours, hoping

that our journeys could continue.

Mine was not to be that day

but the next day I was able

to reach my destination

and complete my solemn

mission, to have her ashes

blessed and placed high up

in the temple’s columbarium.

Some we saved to place beneath

the young jasmine bush we planted

where her memory will be preserved

and when the jasmine flowers,

butterflies will sip her nectar.