In response to today’s prompt: “Today, begin by reading Bernadette Mayer’s poem “The Lobelias of Fear.” Now write your own poem titled “The ________ of ________,” where the first blank is a very particular kind of plant or animal, and the second blank is an abstract noun. The poem should contain at least one simile that plays on double meanings or otherwise doesn’t quite make “sense,” and describe things or beings from very different times or places as co-existing in the same space.”
spring plays peekaboo among
the thunderbolts and downpours
while winter lurks in the dank
shadows on redbuds’ northward sides.
the redbud lends its purple purpose,
beyond common vernal vernacular,
in musing upon the inexplicable
lingering of fuzzy socks despite
overblown tulips. the killdeer
are nesting – or so I believe, never
yet finding their nests. their cry
conjures all my longings, lost
or achingly ever-present. a shadow
casts a pall as its owner – vulture
or dementor – glides surreptitiously
silent above. ah, but there is hope,
despite the chill digits twining
about heart’s cockles. golden
dandelion heads nod and gesture,
like court jesters and innocent
babes, in their dance beckoning
the sun. we revert to childlike bliss,
plucking butter -predictive blossoms
to present in joyful abandon;
warmth harbingers –
these dandelions of hope