In the front garden we have showy milkweed (Asclepius speciosa). It is a milky sapped perennial in the dogbane family which is why it looks like yesterday’s bluestar. The plant is erect on a hairy stalk with pointed simple opposite leaves.  The hairy flowers grow in dense umbellate cymes. Their corollas are reflexed and the central flower parts, five hoods with prominent hooks, form a star shape.  Asclepias speciosa is a specific food for the monarch butterfly. So far we have only seen one very skittish monarch who went only to our Sweet William.  If I Were A Monarch Butterfly I’d play Django Reinhardt’s gypsy jazz as I rambled. Like Romani everywhere, my roots are temporary, my wings all bling, swing, my story backed with chords, percussion, sweep of strings. Improvisation keeps me aloft as I glide through air like flecks of sunlight adrift on morning tides. Fueled by lilt of violins, acoustic guitar arpeggios, wind shear keeps me dancing from milkweed to magenta cone flower to golden jungle marigolds. Tune in to my background story, a glissando shift from bass to highest C notes. I can’t be constrained, reined in, pinned down. Watch me soar from hot club to blues bar, from waltz to swing dance. Follow me as I cross mountains, boundaries, border walls, from Clouds to that elusive Mansion of Our Dreams. Mary K O'Melveney .
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