Poems by Margaret Swart

Monarch Epitaph

by Margaret Swart

From Canary Summer 2020

Margaret lives in interior Alaska, where her neighbors include moose, gyrofalcons, ravens and the occasional porcupine seeking raspberry leaves.

You were billions—
bursts of chromatic orange—
black filigree painted on poetry—
flirtatious flight—

A mystical marvel
migrating from Mexico—
swarming our milkweed—
laying your pearl eggs—
hatched fatling larva
gnawing consuming growing—
suspended in chrysalis
comb of transformation—
aborning wings antennae legs—

Friendly pollinator
in our essential gardens—
landing on our shoulders palms hair—
air held because you dared—

Too intimate a count now—
instinctive mourning—
aerialist near erased
by indifferent spray—