Kevin Olsen: Poet

“Butterfly on a Train”
3/23/01

Feelings of fetal vulnerability
Remind me of school-yard days
When all knew I wasn’t. I tried
Like the rest where the others played.
A butterfly on a train
Feels the way of lost, confusion.
Choosing signs he cannot read to fain
A pseudonym of fake delusion.
A puzzle piece from different worlds
Set and crammed to fit
A set with other girls
Who live there like the rest.
Scrapers rise like brick and steel
Over a concrete land in lost surreal.
The country boy can’t find his way
And to find his life is not more real.
A turtle with a glass shell
Feels just as well to float in a sea
Where the rough snapper couldn’t dwell
And finds the latter loser be.
In my deliberation I’m sure I’ll find
Along this L a fitting rhyme
To describe the fading feelings
That earlier described my life,
But praying with a hope
I’ll make it before I die.