I watched a Hawaiian Monarch float the salt air of a wave like its small form was somehow meant to do this pulled down catapulted forward launched up again and again into the spray unable to look away I began to worry after all it was only a matter of time before this small thing paper thin and fragile would be swallowed persimmon colored wings and bold black splattered against volcanic rock in a brocade of lace and tissue of course this never happens but that doesnt stop me from imagining wings blown apart and spread like a mounted specimen upon the beach a flag of warning that none of the others will see