body splayed
open
like a hand
opened you,
pale violet iris
with the white and yellow
center.
static in
your split form.
the edges
of your petals
clinging
outwards
as though
the air
were wet
fruit
and you
the unpeeled
skin.
appearance restrained
though
only by ab-
sence of
a structural
flaw.
a stasis too
tight for speech
of love, maybe.
but love is poised
in your center
like a white and yellow
dawn,
rapacious
to swallow
pale violet.
red beaded iris:
fat red flower, the meat-color
of the inner lower lip:
repellent and hearty.
but press down and
yellow seeps out--
rich fluid:
yellow supports
tenuous crusts,
crumbling surfaces like
mica to the touch: a
terrible yellow--
red flower
the color
of an infected wound.
