absence of a woman's hands

For the tiny white butterflies
that tumble like pale coins
through shade, some would say,
the flowers are not here as things,
rather experience, process,
unceasing, unfinished
unfolding-to-be, a conversation in the one
moment they've known, while things
weigh in the slippage of time. An instance:
the absence of a woman's hands
that removed a glove finger by finger
and touched a glass to her lips is a thing.

James Owens