Migrating Monarchs -- Fall
- Monarchs now are moving west
- And south, with firm resolve --
- Twenty miles a day, I'd guess,
- And 3 months time involved.
- Flying just above the land,
- This journey's quite immense --
- O'er parlous lakes and parched sand,
- And guided by what sense?
- Singly do they make their way
- But gather here and there;
- Fraught by rain and colder days
- And winds which doth impair.
- Many monarchs doomed to fail --
- The odds are rather high;
- Many monarchs orange and frail,
- But wondrous that they try.
- G. Kittell
2004