K.

Translated from the Spanish

Thirty seconds. Pure noon. A monarch butterfly shores on her shoulder. She wears a wrinkled shirt, sky blue and short-sleeved. She’s in the sun of the little garden, after raking the dry leaves into a bronze heap. Around her, an air of hazy rings and the neighbors pass by. She doesn’t know why, with more than enough reasons to worry, she feels safe. 

Source: Poetry (April 2026)