7.30.2014

Afternoon's Work


I can see the fluttering of two monarchs in the neighbor's garden.  And because I want to be the type of person who crosses the street to look at monarchs, I force myself to get up and cross the street.  I stand, doing my best to take notice, but I'm anxious to derive some kind of meaning from the noticing so I can go back across the street and write about it, which means of course that I'm not noticing at all, but rather thinking about what I should be noticing, and then thinking about how to write about what I'm not noticing because I'm too busy thinking about what I should write.


When a car comes by, 
the two monarchs flutter up 
and around before settling back down. 
Their bodies are fuzzy black 
with the cleanest white spots, 
a body builders dream body, 
all chest, legs thin as veins. 
Its proboscis throbs, 
probing the mound of a black eyed susan, 
its body convulsing with the afternoon's work.  
Its wings open and close.



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