Butterflies on a Bush Trail

Tisiphone Abeona Abeona at Wentworth Falls
An energy guiding me down the track:
flicker of dark wings slashed orange,
the wink of three pairs of eyes. At rest,
the slowest allows fingertip to touch
antennae, stays in a pulsing stillness;
others, when I draw near, escort me
one lap further, take respite only
when I slip past. In flight they leap
and spurt in a rhythm of new angles,
startle with time-lapse grace.
Circled in red, lower eyes are targets;
above, the mask of a metamorphosed owl
averts predation. One flies with verve
despite a broken wing, its depth of ebony
a gift in the hot, tree-shadowed light.