the stars were dancing  

I imagined a butterfly as the stars were dancing    
on the world – it was 2am,  
   
growing with the substance of carbon    
the tree only stood there, I breathed it  
leaning to the left, the half-moon    
was in a strange position, I was expecting it    
to be on the other side of the dome of night  
   
I thought of deflection –  

we see things and think we can understand them,
but we don’t; the sun and the stars nearby,
mercury's orbit and 43 seconds of arc time;    
rudimentary my dear Einstein,  and the distance,    
I was certain the dog was tracing the trail of    
some unknown butterfly long gone by then  
   
I imagined the stars were dancing  
on the world – it was 2am.