Cabbage whites with black-tipped forewings
are not floating this year
over broccoli, mustard and watercress.
West Coast ladies with blue spots
on their hindwings are not nectaring
on blossoms of rabbitbrush.
The number of Western monarchs
has decreased to one-tenth
of one percent of their former population.
With warmer fall weather, their bodies,
regal in orange and black, overheat.
Adults and eggs dehydrate.
The butterflies don’t know when
to migrate, hibernate or reproduce.
They can’t find food, and even if
they lay eggs, the eggs are dying.
Four hundred fifty butterfly species
in the West now face extinction.
Oh, welcome them with milkweed
and sunflowers, rabbitbrush, mustard.
Today, say Come to my garden.
This poem first appeared in Interlitq (2021).
—
Lucille Lang Day is the award-winning author or editor of 20 books, including four poetry chapbooks and seven full-length collections, most recently Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place (Blue Light). The founder and publisher of Scarlet Tanager Books, she received her B.A. in biological sciences, M.A. in zoology, and Ph.D. in science/mathematics education from UC Berkeley, and her M.A. in English and MFA in creative writing from SF State University. lucillelangday.com
