Poem of the Month

All are Necessary, None is Sufficient

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That butterfly,

the one in China,

the one whose wings

blew Hurricane Katrina up

from the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Or to start at the other end,

that last snowflake,

the one the mountain

couldn't resist, that brought

an avalanche down

to bury Montroc.

 

It’s like those people who

look up their ancestors,

or look them down

family as tree 

or tributary.

 

Either way, all ways,

you seem unique,

don’t you?

 

Like all of creation conspired

to make

you.

 

Miraculous machine.

Crystalline intelligence.

Destroyer of worlds.

 

When really

you’re just the flap of a butterfly’s wing,

a snowflake floating

helplessly down

on a field

of fallen

white

hexagons.