Poems
by Andy Colpitts
Salvia officinalis
Centuries old, you won your name when rats navigated our feet, chewing our heels, pus erupting from unhealing sores you save. your name. Even skeptics bow, inhaling your steam Whispers of yesteryear caught on orange wind rustle spring cravings. Puffing away like the cornerstore man, leathery skinned, scorched by the sky. Purging and cleansing each room in turn, your braid is burnt, blacken her shells. Gone missing, I was led from the glade, the grove, to the boundary of the fence where sun silhouettes are etched behind my lids. Forced kisses and lying delusional, kissing trees by mistake. Around that unused pit we charred your flesh for forgetting. Now, even now, I smell your perfume in each elixir drunk and roast chewed. Silos full of cat tongue rough you Your wisdom (once again of that timeless chant) haunts my twilight. Your grey-green smile is my call. Never more to yearn for that cat tongue rough you clean me of his wound. Rosmarinus officinalis Sunlight saunters upon the rows, stopping. Extending the arabesque Ever so often it bends. Rows side by each, but you still peering around this somewhere-else. A young girl in linen (the sun adorns you). but Desert trees were never so determined to reach up to dig down I dare not disclose that you are here just now. This somewhere else was not made for you but cast away these premonitions—revel in the day. Sun-bright chases your scrawny limbs. Nourish you—will someday suck you dry. Tied up with white cotton string. A pendulum. You’ll be revered, adorning sweet meats. Grew long and died faster. your arabesque to Handel, myths spoken in your honor. Daughters will bear your name in rows the sun and I dawdle I caress you thrice to carry you with me, hanging like an aerialist, far above our heads. or else a bouquet of flowers from some demoiselle’s hand dangles among Sisters and Brothers you gaze upon this spinning compass, North-Northeast. slammed doors and tickling bells jostle you, indifferent this way and that your Sisters and Brothers will follow next year. |
Andy Colpitts is a Senior at Brown studying TAPS (Theatre Arts) and Comparative Literature (Literary Translation). He is from the north country of New Hampshire and his (current) herb of choice is rosemary.