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Shadows begin to shrink,
a black swallowtail butterfly siphons dew from spruce needles
with a tongue that curls like the curls of musical notes.
 
His wings the colors of my dreams,
spread wide and gently tilt back and forth.
When wings come together its thin form nearly disappears.
 
Wings open wide again,
blue jay flies in from the shadows 
and catches swallowtail in his beak.
 
I watch the last bit of wings being swallowed as light spills over tree tops,
then I see what was once a dark murderous shadow of blue jay,
now the colors of a bright morning sky.