Walking Home from the Market

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A murky-blue, indifferent sky
intervened by clouds,
and front yard gardens along the road,
are in bloom on summer’s doorstep.

Then a topaz butterfly wanders
into a flock of daffodils,
its wings emblazed in hieroglyphs
I can’t decipher—

sipping the nectar and hovering
like a bookmark to mark its place
between pages of the quiet air,

and the sun is going down
in such a way that I can’t tell if it is me
or the day that is ending.