No Depression

Caleb Nichols

I’ve been eating the same orange
all day, one section at a time.

It’s February, 2021
a muggy 80 degrees

a la niña year, I guess—
no depression, no rain.

In California it is the season
where monarch butterflies

overwinter in eucalyptus
form orange curtains over

blue gum leaves &
soft taupe bark

but this year
they have dwindled

down to almost
none.

All I can do
is witness

the single solitary
Monarch

kissing
the Toyon berries

adrift.

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Caleb Nichols is a queer writer and musician from California. His poetry has been featured in Redivider, perhappened mag, DEAR Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. His poem “Ken” won an Academy of American Poets University Prize, and his first chapbook, 22 LUNES, was published in 2020 by Unsolicited Press. Caleb has an MA in English Literature from Cal Poly State University, where he works as a librarian and English instructor.

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