The New Monarch
or, Danaus plexippus plexippus
or, Migrant Love
over a lifetime of
5 to 7 weeks
brilliant beings striped black gold white
consume tons of milkweed somewhere in USAmerica
transform to monarchs
then fly further north
and consume some more
to the milkweed they gift their
eggs
for the wildflowers whose nectar
they sip they transfer pollen grains
loving more further north until they reach
Canada
in autumn
a monarch supergeneration of
hundreds of millions able to live 34 weeks longer than the rest
read the sun and coast the air south
4000+ kilometres
to nestle together for 6 to 8 months
under the big forest blanket of sacred oyamel firs
the new monarch
is nothing greater
lesser
than the ancient monarch
grandest human-known migration on earth
Salimah Valiani is a poet, researcher and activist. Her newest collections of poetry, 29 leads to love (Inanna Publications), and Love Pandemic (Daraja Press) are forthcoming next month. She loves to travel to the places Poetry Potion prompts take her.