The Last Monarch Butterfly

 

everyone knows the story

of the last man on earth

 

him sitting in his room

the knock on the door

 

I heard a version once:

knock comes right after

 

the poor bastard opens his

mouth and downs a few

 

capsules of cyanide and dies

like an infant wish he was here

 

might have known what to do

now that the flowers are gone

 

we go like this: bees first

crops next then the rest of the

 

unfortunate damned I’m

not sure where the last man is

 

probably been dead for a while

probably never knew what he did

 

probably never been called king

 


Ellyn Touchette is a half-crazed biologist from Portland, Maine. She is on the board of directors for Port Veritas, a local poetry reading and nonprofit. Her work is present or forthcoming in The Emerson Review, Ghost House Review, The Open Field, and others. Ellyn plays roller derby, knows what an electrolyte is, and doesn't want to talk about her age.