.......

Walking near my home in Somerville I take a photo, breath-taking blossoms shining, shimmering in the amazing sunset light.

A couple of days later, I send it to my friend, Oleksandr, serving in Ukraine, our typical way of saying hello. Then with images of him in war, I am about to step outside.

But I pause. I'm pulled to the book sitting on my counter's edge right next to the door: CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, poems by Antonina Tymchenko.

I flip the pages until I find the English. "Just like a butterfly, I'm hard to nail down." Drawn inside, my breath is taken away at the beauty of Antonina's words and imagery.

Evening light again, more blossoms in all their glory, friends torn by war, Ukrainian poetry, thoughts "fluttering, always in flux." Beauty and horrors of Russia's invasion blend and I am connected, distances melted away.

The moment becomes still. And in Antonina's words I feel "love is still close, a butterfly touching my cheek."