Cover Art by Anne Milligan
Think of “Midnight Butterfly” as an homage to Richard Brautigan’s, Trout Fishing In America, a challenge to the surrealistic imagination.
A few years ago, I posted these poems to a website called “Lexington Poetry Month,” where poets from Lexington, Kentucky share one poem each day in the month of June. I decided to challenge myself to write at least 30 poems, using the words or allusions to the nonsense phrase, “Midnight Butterfly.” Midnight juxtaposed with Butterfly becomes an oxymoron and each poem uses the phrase in a different context.
These five and six line poems are not about butterflies or “Madam Butterfly” or lovers at midnight. Some of them do not make sense and some of them make sense as metaphors. All of them were fun to write. I hope you will have as much fun reading them.
Poems numbered 2, 6,11,14,25, and 9 were published in Alien Buddha Zine #38.
“Somewhere in the middle ground, sensitive souls go to find meaning. And if the meaning is soulful, (especially these days) it will take you on a journey, spin you around, send your conscious self spiraling, and when you emerge, you go "Hey, that was really something!!" That's great art. And I believe "Midnight Butterfly" is just such a journey and is truly a classic work of art.”
— Anne Milligan
riding the
Midnight Butterfly Express
wearing my
glassy glitter wings I
wonder why everyone
reaches out to touch me
drummer in the
Midnight Butterfly Blues Band
heart beats neon
while a blind poet
misses the light show
got a letter
from Midnight Butterfly
tattered and worn
hand painted haiku moon
stained by indigo blood
wrote a book
called “Midnight Butterfly”
in secret code
all my horrors hidden
between the lines
jetting in my
Midnight Butterfly car
radio maniac
blaring cosmic questions
I hear myself on the wind
lost again
at Midnight Butterfly
Coffee Shop
scribbling runes in my notebook
with sky blue luminous ink