Portrait of an Iris
       

You are          porcelain pretty one      little word cupshaped      tracing seasons still holding to
branches                    when the eye is an our in autumn                    beneath rimmed tuning

the iris          focuses its petals                    in the reproduction of forms      air flowering
into light what light will acknowledge scattering      what Gods      reside in promise

you are a human event    growth        air          hibiscus                    artery
          seabird          shellfish      unstruck song          the raw materials necessary to creation

in you          the enduring          desire to shape in hierarchy    the intimate authority
                    of paradise      you must step away from this          to know this earth

Copyright © 2010 J. Michael Martinez All rights reserved
from Heredities
Louisiana State University Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission