Lone Monarch

You ply your twin 
           blades of yellow-orange
on the crepe myrtle,

then on the Japanese
           maple. All by yourself,
have you found the sun

compass to take you 
           back to pelted forests
of oyamel fir? Without any

cloud cover, the earth 
          cools; you are looking 
now for other land-

marks, the angles 
           made by mountains 
and magnetic fields.