Photo by Donald Lindsey (September 2015)

Does anyone not appreciate a spectacular butterfly? I have been unsettled by the lack of monarch butterflies this late summer in my gardens. Last summer they swarmed my yard. Alas, I have seen only one this season.

So why the decrease in numbers? From my studies, I’ve learned that monarch butterflies are facing a 90 percent decline in numbers. Several organizations are clamoring for monarchs to be designated as a threatened species.

To learn more about the plight of monarch butterflies, read my poem and follow the links to learn of the problems they face and what you can do to help them bounce back.

If you have a monarch butterfly report for your area of the US, feel free to comment and let me know what you are seeing in your back yard.

To the monarch’s success!

-dbl

12 September 2016 

Only one appeared (summer of 2016)
But I relish your fall arrival, 
feasting nectar from my zinnias,
your darting courtship dance
alongside hummingbirds and bees. 
But it was only you.

A malaise invaded my memories, 
Since my garden was full of your friends, 
But you were alone, no companions,
and I had no milkweed for you,
And then you vanished. 

Your friends have not come, 
And my Owosso garden has not been the same 
and I have not seen your friends.
Owosso is not the same without you, 
and I wonder if I will ever see you again,
my friend.

Have you fled to Central Mexico
or have you perished? 
I promise I will plant milkweed
this spring and I will nurture it,
my friend.

17 September 2016

Last spring you were hit hard
by rain and sleet and snow
in your wintering trees,
and yet, you are resilient, 
my friend.

Generations of Danause Plexippus
have weathered the centuries, 
so I will sow seeds of enthusiasm,
and milkweed, and intercede for you,
my friend.