Feathery Flutters and Volcano Breath

Our week of travel in the state of Michoacan gave us the experiences of meeting wonderful people, feeling thousands of monarch butterflies in the air around us, and climbing the steaming volcano Paricutin.  We alternated camping and hoteling, as it was a bit chilly.  Camping the first night involved setting up our tent in an unfinished house and a meal of fresh steamed trout in a family home, in a beautiful little mountain town.  Near Patzcuaro we awoke to ice coating the tent, so the next night in Angahuan we rented a little trojecito, a tiny cabin with just enough space for four horizontal humans.  Here we'll share our first tries at family poetry, with each person contributing lines, to describe our time with the butterflies and the volcano.

Sanctuario de Monarcas

A rocky worn scrabbly trail

A bushwacking traverse

Finding wings on the ground

Hours of up

then clouds of butterflies windtunneling towards us

like gems

Feathery flutters of fire orange explosion

The swishing of small wings

Or clinging quietly in clusters to individual pine needles

and decorating Dana

Paricutin

Butt-bumbling wood saddles on fuzzy horses

or shoe-filling ash walking

past peach and avocado fields

and troje pointed roof wood houses

then hot and open lava fields

Sounds of Purepecha language

between the guide and his son

Smooth cone suddenly steep

volcano breath steam on our hands

ear to earth engine sounds

ancient smell of creation

Circling the crater

singed buns while innocently eating sandwiches

Knee high ash clouds steep dune

running sliding down

Lava hugging the church steeple of the town no more