Trailside

Milton Jordan

August 11, 2024

Butterflies colorful as helicopter

parrots hover over the meadow

above scattered lantana and verbena,

blue-eyed grass, a scatter of paintbrush

and green pads about to show cactus roses. 

Four guys and a gal on our Grounds and Trails 

committee credit milkweed planted

across the clearing they created

around three trees beyond the back trail

and named Backyard Butterfly Garden.  

Old-timers, though, are not convinced. We knew 

the grandmothers of these flutterers

years ago when nothing grew back here

but cactus, overgrown thistle

and Johnson grass dried out by mid-May. 

Milton Jordan lives with Anne in Georgetown, Texas. He co-edited the first Texas Poetry Assignment anthology, Lone Star Poetry, Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022.