" Broken Butterfly" Poem by Richard Banichar

He stood a gentle man
a wanderer
Haunted by conflict
a bearer of distress

His shabby cap shadowed
a drifters face
his harmonica spoke of
looming pain

The notes floated through
the dusk and shadows
yearning to rise
wounded, as a broken butterfly

He strode the town
eyes distant
A lonely knight seeking
a veiled bridge to cross

Children followed and mocked him
laughing and teasing
He played a song of fallen petals
and withered vines

Everyday he played homage in the
cemetery
The gravestone marked wife and
daughter

He followed the train tracks on
a dark and desolate night
chasing a quest
only he understood

A speeding locomotive, muscle and
might
A whoosh of wind
diamonds and rubies explode

Stars blink and the moon
smiles
music travels through the night
Angels kiss a broken butterfly