Jane Yolen
Farewell to the Monarch
Your delicate wings,
the arch of them
like the slow arc of justice
bending, once again
does not bring success.
The judgment of the supreme court of nature
is brutal in its findings:
drought following flood, wildfires
the wrath of climate change.
Unless you can afford to skip
bail in California,
forgo the bright lights,
the red carpet now too shaggy
to hold even your light weight.
Better to fly back into the coyote hands
of Mexico,
you may no longer
be welcome in this newly
unwelcoming land.
Jane Yolen is a poet, novelist, children’s book writer, essayist, short story writer, and lyricist. To date, she has published 376 books, 10 of them poetry collections for adult readers. She has won many awards for her work, including two Nebulas, two Golden Kite Awards, a Caldecott Medal, two Christopher Medals, a New England Public Radio Arts & Humanities award, and three World Fantasy awards. Six colleges and universities have granted her honorary doctorates. Yolen writes, “But awards can be dangerous. One set my good coat on fire.”
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