We are the ones that dwell within1
the belly butterflies before a tryst
the gold-pot rainbows you will cross
the tingle of her song you still recall
we come as friends, but still beware
without your heart, we lead astray
we are the lights,the will-o’-the-wisps
the calm and comfort, stress, delight
we are the ones within, thriving only
paired with your lover’s beating heart.
- Quote from The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) ↩︎
Today Mish hosts dVerse poetics with a post that ties in a bit different way to the theme of horror of HalloweThe challenge is to take a quote from a famous horror flick given by Mish and take it in a different direction (maybe with butterflies and rainbows).
October 28, 2025

This is exquisitely drawn, Bjorn! I especially love the image; “the gold-pot rainbows you will cross.” ❤️❤️
Thank you… I had fun coming up with rainbows and butterflies…
You’re most welcome 😊
Oh what a fantastic, innovative idea to write from those “belly butterflies”. Love it!
It was my way of honoring your suggestion of writing about butterflies and rainbows.
🙂 Wonderful.
I love that you took Mish’s rainbows and butterflies literally in this poem, Björn!
I had to do that… fun prompt
Nice one Björn
much♡love
Thanks
Vivid imagery Björn with a mystical tone 🦋
As it should be on Halloween
🙌
Heinlein said, “waiting is.” It’s the crossing of the rainbows that titillates the most. Love the artwork you chose to go with your poem.
Indeed it is that sweet anticipation…
I was imagining almost the literal lives within our own bodies…those butterflies, those feelings that become little beings who take over…
It was what the first line gave me… not the sinister ones
This is such lovely poem, Björn. I love the path the first line led you one…every beautiful line of it.
Thank you… once you rid yourself of sinister demons it came by itself.
So romantic and such a lovely image, Björn.
Thank you… it helps to dream a little.
You captured those ephemeral belly butterflies so beautifully! And the artwork complements your poem so well.
Thank you… yes those I got from the prompt itself.
I love the belly butterflies! Such a fun way to go with the prompt!
Those butterflies we all know.
Yes, indeed. So true.
beautiful picture 👌
Lovely. I haven’t read the term “will-o’-the-wisps” in a poem in a very long time and I especially enjoyed that.
It is something fitting for Halloween in that word..
fantastic take on the line!
Thank you… there must be something good that lives inside
Very creative, Bjorn. I love it.
Thank you
I love “we are the lights, the will-o’-the-wisps” — it feels to me both mysterious and intimate.
~David
The magic of the will-o-the-wisps is there and sometimes they are seen as leading us wrong
💯
beautiful lines paired nicely with the featured image. Lovely. I like it.
Thank you… it was fun to take it in another direction
A brand new variety of the species ~ Belly Butterflies!!! I love your poem and I thank you for leaving me a comment.
It was the first specie that occured to me 🙂
I read this at a gas-station in Baker, CA. I didn’t have a chance to respond. Sorry. So… The imagery of butterflies, rainbows, and remembered song captures anticipation, yet the closing lines reminds that passion untethered from genuine connection misleads and ultimately fades. I also like formality of the poems first-person plural narration. Cool choice.