Monarch Chronicles

"White gulls fly over the broad, rippling river.
Its pure water in deep spring can dye your clothes green.
Navigating north and south will make a man age.
Late sun stays a long time seeing a fishing boat home."
   – Du Mu






4.


There was a hawk stationed on the roofline.
She knew nothing of us as she perched and sunned.
The garden looked to be a stationary thing.
Milkweed at the Monarch way station glistened.
Zinnias, all art, teetered only to the bee's weight.
The vast prairie surrounding, our afterthought.
The three million creatures that thrived between
us and the woods everything but not mentioned.