Milkweed

The primary mistake has been

Denying the need of a simpleton

Throwing chaf to blind the fool

Who should have been the rule

–

‘Cause it’s brighter there with him

Not dark or cloudy

He lays, his feet up in the field

Just him- not two, not many

–

Looks into blades of grass

Slender in new sheathing

And allows the slow

Measure of his own breathing

–

It would have been better

I think now of him

To weather loss

With less within

Better to lay and look

At the pattern of a leaf

As if from a book

Than look into grief

–

Leave him now then

If you can leave him alone

For it’s too late to stay

To make sure he gets home

The sun now deepens its color

Is a clear red orb

The latex drips from the milkweed

…

The morning haze fills

The basin and finds him gone

The sun scrubs it into day

Though it’s done nothing wrong

–

Those going there later

Tell of the stark white

Milkweeds thumbed open husk

And the monarch stepping 

There in its joy