Pipevine Swallowtail On A Thistle — Image by kenne
— kenne
Two-tailed Swallowtail on Thistle (Santa Catalina Mountains) — Image by kenne
Bright as canyon light,
the swallowtail drifts and dips
to a thistle’s bloom.
Wings flicker like flame,
tails trailing the mountain wind—
a dancer on spines.
Among thorn and hush,
it feeds, then lifts without sound—
summer passing through.
Summer On Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
Fleabane’s soft pink stars,
thistles bristle in the breeze—
summer stirs the trail.
Thistle and Barbed Wire Fence — Image by kenne
Two-tailed Swallowtail On Thistle On Mt. Lemmon — Image by kenne
— kenne
Bees On A Thistle — Image by kenne
Spring
— Edna St. Vincent Millay
The Two-tailed Swallowtail is Arizona’s State Butterfly — Image by kenne
“The adult butterfly (also commonly called two-tailed tiger swallowtail) has yellow
to orangish-yellow wings edged thickly with black. Each wing has 4 almost parallel stripes
(the innermost stripe is the longest, while the outermost two may simply be bars).
The hindmost part of each wing has a curved row of blue patches and below the blue
are several bars or spots of orange. Two tails extend from the rear of the hind wing,
with the innermost tail considerably shorter.”
Black Swallowtail (08/29/14) — Images by kenne
— kenne
Two-Tailed Swallowtail Butterfly — Image by kenne
Mt. Lemmon in August
At least once or twice a week
We escape the desert heat
Driving the twisting highway
Where saguaros and dried
Desert plants cover the landscape.
Monsoon rains have soaked
The mountains not making it
To the lower elevations where
False expectations continue
To drive our conversations.
With each mountain road turn
The vegetation changes, first
The oak-grassland followed by
The pine-oak woodlands, chaparral
And the pine forest biomes.
A world apart from the desert below
Enjoying the cool mountain air
Clouds begin moving almost
Without motion soon the wind
Blows through the tall ponderosas.
Yet how gentle it seems the hikers
Knowing everything was just
A moment unable to conceive
The skyline on the ridge broken
By a darkening sky about to rupture.
— kenne
Bee On A Thistle — Image by kenne
— kenne
Grunge Art by kenne
— kenne
Bee on Thistle Grunge Art by kenne
— Friends of the Earth
Grunge Art Butterfly (Two-tailed Swallowtail) by kenne
YELLOW
In the beginning, oh, long before that.
When light was deciding who should be in and who should be out of the spectrum.
Yellow was in trouble.
Even then it seems that green, you know how green can be, didn’t want yellow in.
Some silly primal envy I suppose, but for whatever cause, the effect was bad on yellow.
And caused yellow to weep yellow tears for several eternals, before there were years.
Until blue heard what was up between green and yellow and took green aside for a serious talk,
in which blue pointed out that if yellow and blue were to get together,
not that they would but if they did (a gentle threat),
they could make their own green.
“Ooh” said green with some understanding.
Naturally by a sudden change of hue green saw the light and yellow got in.
It worked out fine,
yellow got lemons and green got limes.
— transcribed from Ken Nordine’s jazz and word poem, Yellow
“Clear for Landing” — Image by kenne
— kenne
Thistle (Sabino Canyon, March 17, 2016) — Image by kenne
— kenne
