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The Butterfly House Lyrics by Douglas Dunn

Elegies

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I want a normal life, with wallpaper, and bookends.
Adelaide, in Guys and Dolls
Slow traffic ticks, heedful of ice and children.
I have come home with catfood, cabbage, beef,
Apples and tangerines, and with wet feet.
I am sitting within my own address,
My house, post-coded by the GPO,
A citizen within the audience
Administered by HM Government,
Hull District Council, the Inland Revenue,
North-Eastern Gas, Yorkshire Electricity.
Smiled at by the newscaster now, later
The Met Man will turn to face mе, clearing
His throat, his snow sign placed above thе Humber.
As I draw the curtains, this, I tell myself,
Is how it feels to be at home, waiting
For my love's car, its headlamps on the house,
The garage door with its familiar groan.
Our lives are decorated, too, by paint,
Wallpaper, books and prints, by furniture
Chosen on principle to please more than
The eye - these chairs: wooden philosophers
Considering the artistry of trees;
The fabric in the sofa, that bronze frog;
That strangely Egyptian metronome,
Are objects implicated in my love
And, like my Anglepoise, moments of me
And moments of my love and me together,
And her moments, her secret visions of them.
Fruit in the bowl is good abundance, cold
In the palm of a hand, four countries there -
Producido en España, Fyffe's bananas,
Moroccan oranges, the demotic apple.
This room is everywhere, it its pictures,
Its minerals and chemistry, its woods,
Its weeping fig, bamboos, its foreign stuffs,
That slave trade in its raw minerals.
But timbers long for unfootprinted forests,
China was baked from clay, metals from earth,
And these tame plants were stolen from the ground.
There's Fujiyama, white on cloisonné,
Manhattan water-coloured in the 1920s,
A girl at Spurn, the Clyde, Lord's Cricket Ground.
These books are bound in skins of animals.
The cruelties of comfort know no end
And good taste eats the properties of the world
To make a world, a viewpoint of the heart.
A stained-glass butterfly adorns my window.
Blue, green, red and yellow it is, surreal.
It is also. I call this The Butterfly House.
It is alive in all bits and pieces,
Organic, and inorganic, breathing together.
At night our spirits fly on dusty wings,
Lepidopterous, antennae'd souls.
And that is why I feel at home, but feel
That the large percentage of me that is water
Is conspiring to return to the sea,
Or to the river, flowing in its own shapes,
It, too, alive in the long room of its being.
Credits
Douglas Dunn

Douglas Dunn

About “The Butterfly House” by Douglas Dunn

Read the complete lyrics to "The Butterfly House" by Douglas Dunn from the album "Elegies". On Lyrks you can follow along with the full text, explore the artist's discography, and discover related songs. The track is often categorized under Poetry, Literature, Non-Music.

"The Butterfly House" is performed by Douglas Dunn. from the album "Elegies" This page provides the full lyric text for fans who want to sing along, study the songwriting, or compare versions across releases. Lyrks organizes lyrics by artist and song slug so you can bookmark and share a stable URL. Music lyrics help listeners connect with emotion, narrative, and rhythm in a track. Whether you are learning English, researching a favorite chorus, or preparing for karaoke, having accurate line breaks and section labels (verse, chorus, bridge) makes the experience easier. We link to the official artist profile on Lyrks where available, including biography snippets, top songs, and chart placements when we have that data. If you enjoy "The Butterfly House", explore more songs by Douglas Dunn using the links below. Chart and trending pages on Lyrks highlight what listeners are searching for this week. For copyright or correction requests, see our DMCA and contact pages.

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Frequently asked questions

"The Butterfly House" is credited to Douglas Dunn. Songwriting credits may include additional writers listed on the release; check the credits section on this page for linked collaborators.

"The Butterfly House" appears on "Elegies".

Visit the Douglas Dunn artist page at /artist/douglas-dunn for biography, popular tracks, and links to more lyric pages.