Catherine Jefferson is a researcher, writer and animal welfare campaigner based in West Sussex, UK. Her recent work has appeared in Literary Veganism: An Online Journal.
Brimstone
An almost radioactive yellow,
wings that pound an effervescent energy,
I imagine lemon-scented contrails
trailing in its wake.
Just one, the first I’ve seen all year.
It seems to choose me:
Follow me! its joyful flittering cries,
filled with springlike promise.
I chase after it with the gait of a child
chasing dreams of summer.
But humans are too heavy, too slow –
too soon it’s out of sight.
Its parting gift is sunshine sprinkled:
cowslip at the field’s edge;
swathes of primrose on the bank;
lesser celandine carpeting a lesser-known footpath;
daffodils dotted in gardens.
Each flower singing yellow blessings.
The Field Guide Poetry Magazine 