New Wings

New Wings

Last weekend at a street market,
John met two people* who raise Monarch Butterflies,
as a hobby, usually, but this year
they had clear plastic containers
with cocoons hanging inside
and the dates:

Emergence
July 21-25

You could buy one cocoon
or two.

I checked them first thing
this morning and the cocoons
had turned dark,
which means they are about
to pop.
I drank a cup of coffee and
checked again.

Indeed.
Hanging from the top
of the plastic container
were two butterflies,

drying their wings.
I read that they pump
liquid thru the veins of their
wings to inflate them.

I didn’t know how long
it would take.

In about an hour one
opened it’s wings.

Forty five or so minutes later
we took them outside.
They seemed to be slipping
on the plastic, so I let them step
onto my hand.

They stayed there five minutes
or so, then

at the same instant

both flew off —

one landing on the prairie
verbena plant that volunteered
last year in the front yard
the other in an oleander bush
which is just beginning to bud.

Happy Spring —



©Susan Bright, 2008

Susan Bright is the author of nineteen books of poetry. She is the editor of Plain View Press which since 1975 has published one-hundred-and-fifty books. Her work as a poet, publisher, activist and educator has taken her all over the United States and abroad. Her most recent book, The Layers of Our Seeing, is a collection of poetry, photographs and essays about peace done in collaboration with photographer Alan Pogue and Middle Eastern journalist, Muna Hamzeh.

Click here to learn about the Texas Monarch Butterfly Monitoring Project.
*Carol, 832-283-4552



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