Zach Winters
Monarch
Afternoon, when I saw your cocoon hanging silent
Won’t be here in the dark of the year when the light’s spent
And bent over a misshapen earth
Bottled up in a drinking cup, I hold and watch you
As the summer yawns and autumn blankets my lawn
What will time do to you?

Restless fingers, clenched fists, now, now — is it time yet?
Raising brows, counting down, now, now — is it time yet?
And when the summer lifts
And the evenings are brisk you will turn south
And the same turns that the monarch learns
From the wind’s mouth, will they lift me?

Morning and the dawn of your wings comes too slowly for me
You tap and you twist but your tough chrysalis
Is still holding, it seems
But the trick of the stall
Is you won’t get out at all without the struggling
You’ve got to be strong cause it won’t be long till you’re flying

To see the orange ocean with black and white flickered songs
The dream of meeting brothers that I have never known
Is calling me out
The sea of flame and flutter the yearn to belong
The first rip in the darkness, and the sense of my home
Is calling me out