Monarchs
The calm ocean and ordinary sand
have to be Southern California.
Nothing is moving in this video –
it could be a projected photograph –
until a monarch flies from left to right
and disappears. Back to lack of motion.
Then two large butterflies appear, a third
is trailing them. Gone. More lack of motion.
Four monarchs flap north. End of video.
George Ryan was born in Ireland and graduated from University College Dublin. He is a ghostwriter in New York City. Elkhound published his Finding Americas in October 2019. His poems are nearly all about incidents that involve real people in real places and use little heightened language.
The Mantle 