—after the Spring 2019 butterfly migration
We killed them when they drifted in our lanes.
It was hard not to kill them. Painted ladies
trafficked in the Santa Ana winds
like purposed confetti, buffet for crows.
They’d burst on windshields like a drop of rain
or liquify in legions on our grills,
a suicidal ink blot test. To clean,
you peel the thorax, then the brittle wings.
Jordan Potter is a writer and actor from Huntington Beach, CA. His poetry has appeared in various magazines and his screenplays have been officially selected by film festivals around the world. Blank Verse Films, a studio he operates with Mike Gioia, produces recitations and dramatic reenactments of poems.
Theo
This poem is great.