Emily Rosko

 

 

Lure & Sentence

 

Desire came and went.

It grew tangled, threading

itself through the garden, vital thorned

vine. Took grip with brilliant

deception at the base of the gardenia,

passed itself off as the original

varietal. Some deceptions

are welcomed. Some poisonous,

tipped with harm the leaf-shape,

the green-shade tells. The blossoms

put out by the garden radiate

with sun-fill. I was told

not to pick the flowers, daring

brightness, delicate upside-

down lamps: a face that shone my face

back. How the blooms poured

a fragrance grotesquely heavy-sweet.

Finches tore apart the sunflowers.

Pollen specked my skin the very moment

I touched what would never last.

 

 

 

A. C. Grayling

Matt Hanson

Rebecca Priestley

Zephyr Teachout