Day of kings

[jere7my]

Outside Chianti Il Ristorante today, there were six, seven, eight monarch butterflies in a purple-blossomed bush. I watched them for a while, their tiger-wings opening and closing with perfect serenity. Then I turned around and saw that the larger bush behind me was thick with them—dozens of monarchs, sipping nectar, fluttering from flower to flower. I must've stood rooted to the sidewalk for ten minutes, watching. When an older couple passed by, the entire flock rose up in a flashing cloud, then settled again.

For the rest of the afternoon, as I ran my errands, I kept seeing monarchs sailing past overhead, black and orange against blue. Messages for me.