“Scientists Disprove the
Common Theory that Monarchs are Distasteful to Birds”
Nick Stanovick
The lepidopterist sacrificed butterflies in the name of progress, trimming
off the wings of live Monarchs and placing their dismembered bodies onto a baking pan.
What is an experiment anyway, other than a vain spectacle of power?
Yes, The major wing vein (the costa) was severed so they could not fly.
Yes, the lepidopterist knew the torment of Prometheus, why the eagle tore into
his liver each dawn and still, every morning for two weeks,
the lepidopterist watched as birds emptied the pan of his offerings.
There is evidence the Monarch’s sensed their peril
and successfully escaped the pan: the last one to be eaten
had been lying dead on the patio for days.
It remains unclear if by predator the lepidopterist means
the birds or the hand that held the scissors.
* Lines lifted from Bruce Petersen’s "Monarch butterflies are eaten by birds."
Journal of Lepidopterist's Society 18 (1964): 165-169.
Nick Stanovick is a writer and educator living in Brooklyn. He is an alumnus of Temple University and Auburn University, an International Poetry Slam Champion, and the winner of the Robert Hughes Mount Jr. Prize. His poems have appeared in Spillway, Vinyl, The Academy of American Poets, Ghost City Review, and Drunk In a Midnight Choir among others. He is currently an MFA candidate at Queens College in New York City.
Twitter/Instagram: @n_stano