Bestiary for the End Times

The Monarch (from Lake Patzcuaro to the San Francisco Bay, borders be damned
For Favianna Rodriguez, who launched the monarch revolution
 
Whose numbers have been reduced to nothing
having never cared for numbers in the first place
 
her migrations were famously inter-generational affairs
her florid wings the fiercest kind of beautiful
 
she knew no borders only mountains seas and deserts
she knew no winters only summer, endless summer
 
here come the monarchs their stroke of sun penetrating the sky
their splinters of light smoldering the ochre clouds of migration
 
over the fences and over the walls
here come the monarchs, here they come