An unusually nice day

An unusually nice day

A lightly dusted butterfly

Flutters by,

It is a late developer

Dancing from memory,

A series of haphazard beats

Swaying awkwardly,

Like a drunken thief.

It begs treats

From autumn blooms,

Staggering uncertainly

Over the powdered husks

Of the lately fallen.

More by luck than judgement

It misses a sticky cobweb

Neatly strewn across

The garden path.

Although cleverly designed

To snag the unwary,

The spider is so big

She is hard to miss.

Hanging in space,

Floating unattached

Until the milken sun

Glances across,

In that direction

And strikes sparks of gold

From steely threads

Spanning the chasm

Like a suspension bridge.

A miracle of engineering

Destroyed by a feral cat,

In a moment

Of snagged annoyance.

It spits and sneezes,

The spider freezes

And the cat pounces.

Why build it across

A footpath anyway.

How would anybody know

Without a sign

To warn of

A bridge hung so low.

And as I look on

I lose sight of the cabbage white.

It has disappeared

In the twisted tangle

Of mid-morning.

And once it has gone

I wonder whether

It was ever really there