Danaus plexippus

Danaus plexippus

Great grandmother/ who said the dead are allowed
to return winged, monarch/ To fly from here to there—

That journey over the old lovers, who in their fields
still pull on the root—

Their hands in the soil /Covered/ Clean in the after birth
Those old lovers who draw the message/ Up through

their fingers: remember, remember the faint life/ It flicks
over shoulders/ Comes / Then goes:

Two sisters who escaped once, spun silk for a place
to grow/ To eat through/Emerge/ Land in eucalyptus—

Grove just in from sea, where they rested
Drunk on a thimble of nectar, they drew their wings

up in sleep/ Along the edge of the field:
Spotted lovers/ In the hairs of the milkweed