Butterflies
Why is it that the common expression is
“Butterflies in the stomach”
When referring to a feeling of apprehension
Of both good and bad varieties?
I find the experience is much better described as, say,
Cold-fingered doctors, prodding at you from the inside, or
Perhaps as waves of hot-footed tap dancers performing
From deep within your digestive tract.
And I would also argue that
All situations do not generate the same response from inside.
Waiting in line for a high speed roller coaster is very different from
A medicinal skewering (It helps, they promise.)
And that is very different from the plummeting felt
After being handed a test that might as well be written
In a foreign language.
Sometimes, I am visited by leaping penguins
Fresh from ice cold glaciers
Other times I have the honor
Of a traveling team of fire breathers
Setting up shop in my stomach. (They seem to like to visit in very inopportune situations.)
Some of these sensations can be described as pleasant
While others are unbearable.
One thing is certain,
The feeling from within the pit of my stomach when
I am about to see you
Is indescribable
and unique.
It starts out with a rush of heat
Traveling from head to toe
In a matter of seconds.
It is closely followed by a coolness
More refreshing than
Ice cold water after being lost outside on an eighty degree day
My entire body seems to rise
And everything is as though it is floating
All grievances and tribulations are washed away.
And replacing it is,
A gentle fluttering
A soft brush from fragile wings
Almost as if a small creature has taken flight within me
Or no,
Like many have and all are competing for the best seat to
The spectacle that is about to occur
Almost as if-
Kind of as though-
There were...
Maybe butterflies isn’t such a bad expression, after all.