“Butterfly” by Mike Maimone Is a Love Letter to the Ones We Never Let Go
Sometimes, the universe sends us a sign so clear, so oddly perfect, that it knocks the wind out of us. For Mike Maimone, that sign was a butterfly. And from it came one of the most moving songs we’ve heard in a long time.
Butterfly, Maimone’s latest single, is more than a song, it’s a spiritual moment, a sonic keepsake of his love story with his late husband, Howard Bragman. The track is intimate, vulnerable, and haunting in the way only a true grief song can be. But it’s also warm, alive, and full of the quiet kind of hope that comes from knowing we carry the people we’ve lost with us, always.
Written after Howard’s passing, Butterfly sits near the end of Maimone’s upcoming album Guess What? I Love You, which chronicles the highs of queer joy and romance, and the lows of devastating loss. Side A is all flirtation and wanderlust, sexy travel stories from Maimone and Howard’s time together. But Side B, where Butterfly lives, is the emotional core: the diagnosis, the goodbye, and the life that continues in the after.
The story behind the song reads like something from a novel. In Howard’s final hours, Maimone read aloud loving messages from friends. One, from ABC’s Dr. Jennifer Ashton, said “Send me butterflies.” She had no idea that butterflies had been Howard’s spiritual symbol since his mother passed, a detail that would soon feel impossibly profound. Days later, a butterfly landed on Howard’s toast. After the funeral, Ashton called Maimone in shock after a Medium delivered messages from Howard, despite knowing nothing about him. Then came a trip to Mexico, a butterfly waiting at the villa door, a piano in the entryway bearing the name “Howard.” The universe was shouting, and Maimone was finally ready to listen.
That’s when he wrote Butterfly, at that very piano, surrounded by signs, drenched in feeling. The result is a shimmering track Maimone describes as “melancholy dance music.” It pulses with life, even as it aches. It’s the kind of song that sits heavy in your chest but makes you want to sway anyway. Think Future Islands meets LCD Soundsystem, if they’d lived through a queer love story like this one.
And yes, it’s personal. But Maimone knows the feeling is universal. That ache of losing someone and feeling them again in the most unexpected ways? We’ve been there. Many of us in the LGBTQ+ community know what it is to lose chosen family, to feel disconnected and then suddenly, miraculously, reminded. Whether through a dream, a song, a butterfly…love finds a way back.
Butterfly is a song about that return. About how we don’t move on, we move forward. About the rituals we build to stay connected. “Every morning, I pour myself a cup of coffee, and a second one for Howard,” Maimone shares. It’s a lyric in the song—and a daily act of remembrance.
This track is queer grief, queer love, queer healing. It’s one of the most stunning songs Maimone has ever written, and it left us breathless.
Music doesn’t always fix things. But it gives shape to what we feel when words fall short. Butterfly reminded us that love doesn’t vanish, it changes form. Like wings breaking out of a cocoon, like signs we weren’t ready to see until we were, love transforms. And if we’re lucky, it sings back to us.
Butterfly is available to stream on all major streaming platforms. Follow us on X and Instagram for all queer stuff!
Featured Image: Image Courtesy of Project Publicity and Mike Maimone
