Reece Burkaauthor

The Poetic City: “The Butterfly Effect, The Laws of Karma, and The Fate of New Orleans 7/22/18”

The beauty of a stinging caterpillar. (Photo by: Bernard Dupont)

 

The Butterfly Effect, the Laws of Karma, and the Fate of New Orleans   7/22/18

 

It has been said that the direction of a butterfly 

flapping its wings in the Amazon can determine 

whether a hurricane hits us in New Orleans. 

 

Perhaps such was the case with Katrina

 

Maybe that’s why I decided to save the life of a little caterpillar 

slowly making his way across a country road in Vermont. 

 

He didn’t look like the kind that eat our oak trees 

and whose sting can hurt for days. 

 

So, I found a leaf large enough for him to climb on 

and I carried him safely to the other side of the road. 

 

It’s been said that “what goes around comes around.”

 

Maybe that was on my mind when I saved the caterpillar 

from one fate to preserve him for another.   

 

After all, if everything is connected, that caterpillar could  

become the butterfly who flaps his wings in just the right direction

to spare our city from its next disaster. 

 

Then I felt foolish to hope that such an inconsequential act 

as my caterpillar rescue could make any real difference 

in the grand scheme of things.

 

Until I began to consider the effect it was having on me…