Animals: “Little Snatchers” by Aria Pahari
Little Snatchers
My sister and I creep closer
to the blush of purple blooms
where butterflies fold wings
for a journeyed sip of nectar.
We reach up to clasp them
between forefinger and thumb
reveling in the sheen that lingers
on our fingerprints like ember.
Upon release their flight
stutters with turbulence slight
but before leaving we notice
realignments with air
undeterred by our hands
outstretched in false threat
to flitting limbs blessed
with dust layering
and settling like a dance
upon the terrain of a planet
we are grasping to know
if only for a beat.
About Rebecca Pinwei Tseng
Rebecca Pinwei Tseng is a writer from Taiwan and an MFA student at Columbia University. Her work can be found in Chrysanthemum Taiwanese Poets Anthology, Asian American Writers’ Workshop (The Margins), The Academy of American Poets, and elsewhere. She currently lives in New York with her two pet bunnies, who are very much in love.