"Letters to Eliza" is a tale of love. Letter # 1

Letter # 1

Today I remembered you in a chintz sundress that became a haven for summer days and butterflies. You stand motionless so as not to spill pollen from fragile wings. Butterflies swing on chintz flowers, and one so wants to freeze in this moment, to dissolve in it entirely, as if there will never be such an exciting numbness in nature. These butterflies were sent by me. They flew towards you through the whisper of my spells, past hundreds of people like you, frozen in confusion and delight. To you alone they carried the joyous song of flowering. Each of them to this day is a rainbow messenger, that openwork thread that connects us, that invisible hope that never leaves me in those days when none of my messengers was able to reach you on that frozen island where you once settled. All those flowers that you carelessly step on, which your gaze slides over, that you cut and throw into glass vases, all of them were once butterflies sent by me, striving towards you through invisible distances. They fell to the ground and turned into beautiful and motionless flowers the day you took off your chintz sundress and covered your face with your hands. Therefore, every time you hold your gaze on the petals of flowers or the fluttering wings of butterflies, it is like a memory of those days full of calico perfection, as if you were looking straight into me, as if you recognized me ...

Anastasia Volkhovskaya