Fall of a Monarchy
Matt Mutiva
A man’s true power is being
able to decide his own end.
And I am the traveler between worlds
where countless Lantanas were planted.
A woman is washing the blood
from the head of a cow, which still
has its eyes and horns intact. She loves
in ways we’re only starting to understand.
The streams running between the bushes
are quiet. The trailing edge of our forewings
tracing the treetops along the way,
flying upwards where the woman can’t
reach us
Where we float down the sodden oyamel boughs in a parade of orange and black,
and we can’t stop trembling
even though we’ve reached the right part
of the forest with shallow
spring-fed puddles.
In the middle of the trail
is the flutter of a thousand wings
as the heat escapes into the sky.
We make a beautiful, susurrant sound
lying on the forest floor, still wet
from last night’s rain path, with closed wings that resemble clasped hands,
with fingers pointing upwards, praying
where my ancestors wintered.
Matt Mutiva is a regular guy who writes what he can when he can. And when he can't, he writes anyway. If he's lucky, they'll call it poetry.
Mikayla Faivre is from North Freedom, Wisconsin, and is majoring in Animal Science. She has always been enamored by storytelling and spends her spare time reading or writing. Mikayla is a recipient of the David Cole Award in Creative Writing. This is her second year as an editor for the Spirit Lake Review.