Democracy in Danger

by Angela Hoffman


The orange aphid, soft-bodied
cloning itself in masses, not even requiring a mate
sucks the life out of the milkweed, creating honeydew;
profuse excrement left on the leaves, shiny, sticky.
It chokes off the absorption of anything that will nourish the plant.
This rapidly reproducing bug, capable of growing wings
threatens to fly off, do it all over again. 
The Monarch butterfly that feeds on the milkweed
is now on the endangered list. 


* * * * *

Angela Hoffman lives in Wisconsin. Her poetry has appeared in Solitary Plover, Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Museletter and calendar, Agape Review, Verse-Virtual, Visual Verse, and Your Daily Poem.com. Her first chapbook (Resurrection Lily, Kelsay Books) is scheduled for release in 2022. She committed to writing a poem a day during the pandemic. Spirituality and nature often inspire her poetry.