There Are Less Butterflies Now

[sodatabbed]

I wish I had more memories of nature to draw upon
But there are less butterflies now
And it was too hot to go outside.
As a child, I chose
Binoculars and a microscope as my prize
For all those long days
Doing math problems indoors
With these instruments in my hands,
I looked about,
and realized I had nothing around me with which to make music.
I sat back down in my chair
And continued reading notes instead,
As my tongue prodded the gap in my gums,
Where a tooth used to be.

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Hello everyone, this is my first time posting in the Pen (and in fact, my first presenting a poem to critique, period). I chose a smaller one to start out, and posted here in the Basic Critique Forum since I'm a beginner to all this, but please feel free to critique as thoroughly as you like if you have the time to spare! I'm eager to learn and improve.

[RiverNotch]

I wish I had more memories of nature to draw upon
But there are less butterflies now Maybe "Since" rather than "But".
And it was too hot to go outside.
As a child, I chose
Binoculars and a microscope as my prize
For all those long days
Doing math problems indoors Missing a period here.
With these instruments in my hands,
I looked about, Considering the last four lines, I suggest:

With these instruments in my hands,
I jumped up,
Looked about,

and realized I had nothing around me with which to make music. This line is too prosaic. Overlong, could be a more compelling image, and so on.
I sat back down in my chair
And continued reading notes instead,
As my tongue prodded the gap in my gums,
Where a tooth used to be. For those last four lines, I suggest:

I sat back down in my chair
And returned to my notes
While my tongue prodded
The gap in my gums
Where a tooth used to be.

Everything but that one too-prosaic line is pretty strong, I think, especially because it's so simple.