bloom
 

please do not change your colors
cameleonlike become pygmalion
i am not galena
no eliza i
nothing angers me so
as someone claiming
they've awakened
my sleeping self

just because i haven't bloomed for you
doesn't mean i do not
know how to blossom

some mistake my quiet gaze
for stonelike fear
in truth
i watch for prey
sustained and nourished
by my own hand and cunning

i'm simply not domesticated

gardeners
who want to make me bloom
within their delineated patches
make me laugh

can you appreciate my wild beauty

i'm no springtime flower
predictable
opening trembling petals
to receive attention

succulent
i blossom from time to time
when i determine a bloom could be sustained
some see it
some don't

i don't drop predictably
into your waiting hands
like rotten overripe fruit

so few see
the bloom of a desert night
the heady scents
released for the moon
to guide the nightblind creatures
to sip my nectar and warm my flesh
hidden from all but the very few
 

 

6 May 2001
nancy faye hill
copyright 2001
all rights reserved

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