Poems
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Cleistocactus winteri (Golden Rat Tail)
By Maria TakolanderSuch obscene sea-green
swarming hardly belongs in
this frankness of sun.
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Botanic / “Commission”
By Cameron Lowe—for Tamryn Bennett
Tired my eyes
having done nothing but speak
turtle talk to tortoise -
Botanic / "Hermeneutics"
By Cameron Lowe“The land escapes because it refuses”
—Tony Baker
Turned the sun over -
Step Off Golden Rat Tail
By Elena Gomezhere a clumped heart &
welts soon for the softer plush—
our thickened carpet slug.
we are on a different level -
Botanic / “One-way conversation with Agapanthus”
By Cameron LoweTrouble is
the reflective lyric pose
won’t hold, when every time I greet you
vision splits (courtesy -
Remnant
By Ryan Prehnremnant /ˈrɛmnənt/ noun
1. a part or quantity that is left after the greater part has been used, removed, or destroyed.
i. a piece of cloth left when the greater part has been used or sold.
ii. a surviving trace. -
Cereus peruvianus (Peruvian Apple or Apple Cactus)
By Maria TakolanderIn the deep of night:
a rush of moons flowering,
soon rustling with moths.
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Echinopsis spachiana (Torch Cactus)
By Maria TakolanderA forest, they rise
to the god of night and, awed,
ignite in blossom.
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Ceiba insignis (White Silk Floss Tree)
By Maria TakolanderAncient sun of gold—
smuggled down this studded trunk
to the underworld
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Marylebone's Wedding
By Duncan HosePagans I don’t know what they do with them
Chuck em in the river I Spose
You try drawing the head of Xipe Totec he will take
All your drankeeness, guile and something else which you will not -
The bean seller's tale
By Maria TakolanderOnce upon a time,
we were cast as
hoodwinkers, thaieves,
old-timers of the deranged forests -
Botanic / "Beginning with four words from a poem by Joseph Massey"
By Cameron LoweThere’s little
to say. The fig—
giant—leans
across the -
Floral Axis
By Autumn RoyalThis is not a concentration of dramatic method.
There appears to be a growing expectation
language can be trusted for clarity, a petal,
yet these segments are modified & leave a waxy -
Euphorbia caput-medusae (Medusa’s Head)
By Maria TakolanderIts skyward forays
thwarted, it lays low, seething—
fires with its own stars
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Agave franzosini (Grey Ghost)
By Maria TakolanderWhat a soul baring:
all this barbed glory laid out
for the noonday sun.
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Agave victoriae (Royal Agave)
By Maria TakolanderPorcelain perfect:
such composure beneath the
wheeling, star-streaked sky.
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Echinocactus grusonii (Golden Barrel Cactus)
By Maria TakolanderBurrs of spiked lemon
spill themselves—what a fuss on
the volcanic rock
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Crushed Stone for Silver Waves
By Elena GomezI’m all chapped what are your lips doing at that entrance here is the softest flesh to test
against me my monsters are tougher they could have survived
real ancient purges don’t you know my species is no longer legitimate are you
my…are you floppy enough to last are your tendrils going the way for a new te… -
At the Tandicals
By Chris Wallace-Crabbe“It is good to know the truth, but better to speak of palm trees.”
(Peter Steele, after the Arabic)
From the high lawns
