Following The Sun

(Album: Share This Place: Stories And Observations - 2007)

Oh, these ragged wings
Oh, these papery things
Ah but strong am I
I can fly and fly
I'm the king, am I
Earthly winds I ride for miles and miles

I've been biding time
At the over-wintering site
Where the firs are fine
And the mountains high
The winter months we like
This habitat for us is perfectly designed

Lepidopterists are pleased
Know it took them years to find me
In nineteen seventy-five
Discovery arrived
In Mexico the prize
This is where we hide
But still you wonder why
We are so dramatically inclined
To live this migratory life

Lives like ours rely
On seasonal plants which die
And soil gets too dry
And sunlight does grow nigh
We travel 'til we find
A host by which our darling hatchlings will survive

A green tender shoot
Asclepiads bloom
Fragrant firework
Cardenolides usurp
Aposematics work
Assiduously we searched
And though it won't be me
My progeny will surely see
Their return to the prairies