This machine that wandered by scanned all the lands,
but all it sought was the world's last butterfly.

Colossal it came and grayed the sky; but light as air,
quiet as naught, this machine that wandered by

tracked with an electric eye a flitting dot;
that little dot was the world's last butterfly.

Falling silent as a sigh, it chose a nearby
viewing spot. This machine that wandered by

then deployed its pincers spry, and so sudden,
so neatly caught was the world's last butterfly,

that if they could think as you or I, the lonesome flowers
might have thought this machine that wandered by
was the world's last butterfly.