butterfly fish

today I saw a butterfly 

glossy black

fluttering its wings 

on a dead fish 

in the middle of the red brick path 

curving upwards 

at Fort canning Park .

trees towering on either side

bushes a plenty 

flowers red, yellow, white

and this butterfly 

settles on this dead fish. 

I wondered why..

am identity crises? 

you are a butterfly, I wanted to yell

not a house fly

why why why 

would you hover around a dead fish 

in the middle of a park? 

why is there a dead fish in the middle of the path? 

the river is not far away

I imagine an Eagle or Brahiminy kite,

swooping into the waters of the Songapore River,

and flying over fort canning Park

tasty treat in beak

to feed its babies in a nest

then, it dropped the fish here? splat in the middle of pavement? 

why. 

another bird attacked it? 

it saw its babies being attacked and it dropped it to caw angrily at the predator? 

or just a clumsy bird? 

like us. elegant one moment and drop your fish on the floor awkward the next? 

likely it was someone's taupau fried pomfret or something. 

hungry hapless person drops lunch and lures curious butterfly, eager to explore the other side, seeking beauty in the purported filth of the world of flies and mosquitos 

I'll never know I suppose 

how that fish got to that pavement 

and how that butterfly 

ended up there 

to tease and mess with the imagined order of things as I see them in my mind