Thank you for the little red boats
you have placed on my papers to skim
like swans across the print-pocked surface
of a student’s vocabulary worksheet,
each petal a deep red flaring out
from the wedge where a stamen extends
inward like a tiller. I imagine riding
in this tiny bark, idylling on the silky cerise
of its hull. The rest of the tulips remain
in their Valentine’s vase, withering
beautifully and dropping more petals
onto the sea of the cluttered oak table;
I think of the view you told me greeted you
in the still-dark morning when one ray of sun
reached in through the window to touch
the flowers awake, and how lovely they were
there, looking fresh as though just-picked,
preening in dawn’s approving gaze.
is the author of the chapbook The Belly Remembers and two full-length volumes of poetry, Wild Domestic and Moraine, all published by Pearl Editions. Her most recent chapbook, On the Fault Line, was released in March by Picture Show Press. Her full-length poetry collection Morpheus Dips His Oar is forthcoming from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. Her work has appeared in Chiron Review, The Worcester Review, A Year of Being Here, ONE ART, The Writer’s Almanac, and many other publications.
A swimmer, dog lover, and native of the southern California desert, Ms. Madison has recently retired from teaching English and French in a Los Angeles high school. Read more about her at:
https://tamaramadisonpoetry.com
