FLORA
By Tamara J. Madison
For them noosed and strung
from your withering family tree,
catching searing razor or metallic seed
between jewels, teeth or spleen,
crosses aflame upon the scars of their backs--
with one blink of the sun,
stars shed their skins
instead of tears.
The sloughs slip
among the heavenly bodies,
drift on crippled winds, wriggle
through the whimpering willows’ leaves,
land softly on a regiment
of weeds bending
to bear them as honors
before they slip again
to hardened soil yet fecund
with prophecy.
Titanium threads root,
silver stems ascend,
concrete contracts, splits
as copper waters birth
crowning heads
of cast iron roses.
By Tamara J. Madison
For them noosed and strung
from your withering family tree,
catching searing razor or metallic seed
between jewels, teeth or spleen,
crosses aflame upon the scars of their backs--
with one blink of the sun,
stars shed their skins
instead of tears.
The sloughs slip
among the heavenly bodies,
drift on crippled winds, wriggle
through the whimpering willows’ leaves,
land softly on a regiment
of weeds bending
to bear them as honors
before they slip again
to hardened soil yet fecund
with prophecy.
Titanium threads root,
silver stems ascend,
concrete contracts, splits
as copper waters birth
crowning heads
of cast iron roses.
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