How does it happen
 
that you keep losing your way,
 
yellow butterfly?

 
 
 

Who will go with me
 
on my pilgrimage through spring?
 
You, white butterfly?

 
 
 

Yellow butterfly,
 
if you know the way, lead on!
 
I’ll be right behind.

 
 

Morning by morning
 
I wait for your appearing,
 
yellow butterfly.

 
 

Finishing the month,
 
I reach for pen and paper—
 
butterfly haiku!

 
 

Yellow butterfly,
 
no one on the train will mind
 
if you hitch a ride.

 
 

How can you not know
 
where the sweetest blossoms are,
 
yellow butterfly?

 
 

Father’s Day coffee
 
while remembering his quirks—
 
restless butterfly

 
 

Yellow butterfly,
 
your ragged and tattered wings
 
won’t carry you far.

 
 
 

Chilly autumn days—
 
every yellow butterfly
 
has fled my garden.