I’ve never bothered with the names of flowers,
though now I’d like this expertise to call
them out to you as we hike in.
But I would want their true names, not
the guide’s all-classifying explanations:
for yellow simple-shaped or odd-
belled purple cluster, I’d rather plump-girl-
shaking-her-hair-out-in-the-shower,
and violet-prom-dress-circa-1960.
Or better yet, I’d have the words
that droning bee has just now written at
the throat of lakeside goldenrod. They must
be intimate—see how he calms between her?
His body, only evolution’s hunt
for agitation, yet the way he gentles at
her feathered mouth. Let’s call that… what?
Biology is obvious. Or choose
another name. No matter how you speak,
what language we might settle on,
the woodpecker won’t stop her rhythmic knocking
inside the arms of tamarack,
and we’ve arrived at birds and bees again.
But nothing is as simple, is it?
from One Above and One BelowFind it in the library
Copyright © 2000 Erin Belieu
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.