Boom! / of dragons and monarchs
Boom!
Hear the thunder bellow like a dragon over the bay. Lightning strikes white, lavender along the edges. It’s low tide and the sand bar after so many storms stretches almost from the point to the beach on the other side. The milkweed is blooming. Food for the Monarchs, I told my gardener. Don’t you dare cut them down. He’s Irish, his accent always takes me by surprise. Like lightning during the day. Bang. Bang. Thunder and lightning but no rain. The temperature drops. A thin layer of fog mists the water until all I can see are the tips of the sailboat masts. Above them the sky is blue, a brighter blue than the bruise of unknown origin on the back of my leg. It’s the shape of a desert island. My body is a map. The tattoo inked on my ankle before it was so common to get tattooed has aged. What were thin black lines have spread and bled into my skin turning the butterfly into a blur. My butterfly is crude, a simple outline filled with red, yellow and green, not nearly as detailed as the Monarchs that flit around my milkweed. Snap. Crackle. Pop. I try to envision people hustling to flee the beach in the fog. A few years ago, on just such a day, during a similar rainless storm, lightning struck the sand, and traveled to where two women, old friends, stood. The one died on the spot, the other, weeks later. Now at the first hint of a shock the lifeguards evacuate the beach. Another bolt slices the sky. I wonder if, when it’s over, we’ll be treated to a rainbow.
- Joan Wilking
of dragons and monarchs
Alyssa Langlais
Mixed Media - 3D Paper Collage
About the Creators
Joan Wilking
Joan Wilking is an author, artist and graphic designer. Her award winning short stories and essays have been published in print and online. Her design career has spanned decades. Her art and ceramics have been more of an avocation. Her novella, Mycology, won the Wild Onion Novella Prize and was published in 2017. Her novel, A Sign of the Times, will be published in November of 2026 by Vine Leaves Press. You can read the short story that inspired it here.
Alyssa Langlais
Alyssa L. Langlais is a Merrimac, MA-based paper collage, mixed media, and digital artist enamored with water and swimming. Her work uses found images, color, texture, and graphic forms to explore memory, evoke symbolism, and record time. She creates collages as a way to capture the intense and beautiful moments she experiences in the water. Her collage and mixed media pieces are one-of-a-kind, hand cut, and arranged depictions of watery scenes. She will occasionally delve into other nature-based subjects as well as exploring imaginary realms. She has found that the digital medium allows her freedom to continue her work outside of her studio and lends itself perfectly to the graphic forms that she is drawn to.
Alyssa has been a “Galleries, Archives, Libraries, and Museums” space professional for over 27 years, as a curator, registrar, project manager, and digital technologist. An avid open-water marathon swimmer, she swims frequently on the NH and MA seacoast and in New England lakes. She enjoys creating collaged memory maps of her adventures and collaborating with other athletes. Alyssa works with non-profits, designing websites, logos, and commemorative artwork. Recently, Alyssa founded the Gulf of Maine Open Water Swimming Association with several like-minded friends.