Thursday, January 17, 2008

Diana Webb: NOT THE BUTTERFLY HOUSE

.
'The Butterfly House closed last year,' someone tells us. So Beachyhead becomes the focus for this late spring day instead.

'It is returns you want, not singles?' the bus driver asks drily as we state our destination.

He drives us to a point high on the downs from where we walk to look down the precipitous drop to the red and white lighthouse far below, against chalk and spray.



on cliff edge posts
rose bunches bound tight ―
wind through the grasses


Outside the nearby pub-restaurant, under a cloudless sky, people talk of the hazards of full fat foods, cholesterol levels.


'Samaritans
are always there' ―
this small pink cranesbill


by Diana Webb
London, England
_________________________________________

Note: Beachyhead is a clifftop beauty spot on the south coast of England notorious for suicides. A Butterfly House is the equivalent of a greenhouse for butterflies in which exotic species breed, develop and live in conditions like those of their natural habitat.

No comments: