The petals are opening: but
what will emerge
no-one can say.
A thing with legs
a single eye
or a blind mouth
ringed with teeth?
These things
have been seen before
though what they all mean
it’s impossible to tell:
the legs merely walked around
describing crazy circles
until the invisible mechanism
came to a stop. The eye
never told us what it was
it was looking for. The mouth
gulped at the air soundlessly
for a while, then closed.
Time was, when flowers opened
to reveal the anthers
arranged on filaments
around the stigma,
but things have changed.
.
Dominic Rivron
Picture Nick Victor
.