Holly Thompson-III

Lotus Wanting

 
 
 
 

why is it that we want so much

to believe in the sound of lotus

buds clicking open at dawn

 

as if the blooming, momentous

act all its own, there on a tilting

stalk rising from mud beneath

 
 

a pond now crowded with aerial

leaves all tipping and waving, even

bejeweled with orbs of rainwater,

 
 

as if the opening of petals to sky

and gentle closing at dusk would

somehow be enhanced if, in addition

 
 

to this gift of blossom from a plant

that may have lived not decades

but centuries, rhizome to rhizome

 
 

there were a definite

just-audible pop

 

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