Direct sun is bad billet for cuttings.
Lily was long-stemmed,
half drunk
half honest
night-starred
giving head to a bottle in a graveyard.
She never chose her own tattoos--
just once born, once baptized,
seven times left crying by the roadside.
Lily likes her Ginny with Georgia lime.
O Lily fair, Lily bright,
gives all her love
to a runaway cat
and salts her bath with anything white.
Lily used to pose on a coffin lid
half sweet
half willing
half live, half dead.
Long-stemmed Lily talking out of her head
to the peonies out by the garden shed.
Of course she loves you,
tap-water blank with soft pale hands.
Lily fair, Lily bright,
long-stemmed Lily in your circle stands
almost straight
almost strong
almost saved, and almost
gone.
gone.
_____
for Camera FLASH! at Toads.