ART: Local author, Betsy Littrel poetry of a mother’s love

Butterfly in the Window

Every day, I hold my breath.

In the windowsill, a stained glass butterfly. Catching light.

Made by my son in a second-grade classroom, it looks different every time I wash dishes. Sometimes the red is garnet, other times pink. The yellow spreads on the white wall and late in the day, it shrinks.

Like washing wool in hot water, I wither a little each August. He grows--up to my nose, and I blink and he’s a whole head above me.

At the light of the day, he takes flight: undeclared major, unexplored town.

Still, I see freckles on his face, eyes reflecting the light of a butterfly, and he moves a stray hair back in place.

Betsy’s son Nicholas designed the cover art for her new book called, Dragon in My Purse.

Betsy smiles for a family photo with her fiancée and four sons overlooking the San Diego Bay and skyline at Centennial Park in Coronado.

• Betsy Littrell is a Lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies at San Diego State University who lives here with her fiancée and 4 children. This poem that expresses a mother’s love for her son, is from her latest book, Dragon in my Purse available at Amazon and locally at Bay Books Coronado.