Toby Smith lived in Sydney Australia and always did what he was told.
In 1977 he had reached the age of Eleven years old.
He was a bright child but found it difficult to talk with his Mother.
She was a single mum and resented Toby for being such a bother.
She would sit at the kitchen table talking to a bottle of Tequilla,
And dreamed of the life she had with Joe the Audi Dealer,
Toby was not interested in friends and only loved local Butterflies,
He had dozens of library books on Butterflies,piled up to the skies.
He delighted in names like Cressida Cressida or Clearwing Swallowtail.
But when his Mother would try to talk with him he went as quiet as a snail.
He recited names like Graphium Choredon, the Blue Triangle,
They lay eggs on the Avocado Tree or the verdant Camphor Laurel,
He found joy in the words like Acrea Andromacha or the Glass wing,
Names like Danaus affinis or Black and White Tiger made him sing.
But of all the beautiful Butterflies that ever came to rest,
He really loved the glorious orange and black Monarch Butterfly the best.
He drew a coloured picture of the Monarch on his bedroom wall,
And wrote it’s other name “ Wanderer” underneath it all.
One day he sat outside in the quiet of the backyard sat perfectly calm,
He saw a Monarch Butterfly Danaus Plexippus land on his arm,
He was incredibly excited but he knew not to scare it away,
He studied the orangey-brown spaces and counted how many there were.
There were 16 orange spaces on each of the pairs of wings he saw there.
He even counted the 96 white dots that circled the Monarchs wings.
Toby could not believe he was witnessing the most beautiful of things.
All he could hear was his Mother screaming at him to come inside.
She was going out on the town and didn’t want Toby outside,
She dragged him by the ear and yelled at him to stay in his room,
She would be home at midnight and if he was awake she would belt him with a broom.
Toby went to sleep dreaming of butterfly wings and gentle things,
And the quiet peace that a Monarch butterfly brings.