Guest Poem by Margaret Wilmot

Margaret Wilmot was born in California and settled in Sussex, England in 1978. She has been published in various British poetry magazines. Smiths Knoll published a pamphlet Sweet Coffee in 2013. Man Walking on Water with Tie Askew, a full-length book of poems, was published by The High Window in June 2019.

The Butterfly Effect

for Nick and his butterfly

I heard Monarch for Monach as a seal
rolled high in the curve of a wave, and marvelled

that sea-battered islands far west of Scotland
should share a name with butterflies
in another Far West.

Do they still build cocoons in the fennel on Summer Street?

The sea beats against our screen, spatters.
The drops feel wet.

Huge seal bodies loll weightless in sea-light.

Sunlight trembles through wings fragile as sunset.