cause and effect in poetry

yes, a single flap of a butterfly’s wing
can down a chain of causal dominoes
trigger off a hurricane a continent away
but that’s not why the butterfly flaps
any triggering of butterfly effect
is coincedental to its flight

the butterfly is just trying
to stay afloat against all physics
it is just trying to get to
the next flower to eat lunch
or to another butterfly for sex
it doesn’t know for hurricanes
it only knows for getting by

at a distance, the butterfly
is one of the prettiest things on earth
when you get up close with a magnifier
the zoomed-up face of a butterfly is the
fucking ugliest thing in God’s creation
it is fucking terrifying
it looks like it eats human babies whole
just for funsies

the butterfly doesn’t know these things either
its beauty from far away for people
its mindbending horror from nearby
let alone for city-destroying storms
it just knows that it must go fly
so that it can maybe just get by
its just trying to survive
like us all
beautiful and ugly
big and small
alike