Circa 2006

In my sophomore year, I wrote a silly little poem inspired by an article that I read in one of my Spanish books about monarch butterflies that migrate to Mexico every year. I rescued it recently from the mess of college assignments that remain cluttered on my laptop. Though I'm usually embarrassed when I find pieces of my old writing, I actually kind of like this one. I think that it captures a bit of that inexplicable something that I find so enchanting about Mexico...

Migration to Zitácuaro

Cold autumn comes and they depart

the billowing of a billion paper-thin wings

weaving south, leaves blushing brown

at their hurry.

They alight, spilling atop canopies

of waiting trees, weighing the boughs

in a glorious sway of searing orange,

bursting like steam soaked in cilantro

and maize, dizzy in a stupor of sangria.

Drawn by the love-song of mariachis,

and the murmur of smoke stained glass,

México lindo y querido, disarming dream

spun for monarchs: the butterflies.