Oak Park Conservatory, Oak Park, Illinois
The deep strangeness of
flowers in winter--
the orange of clivia,
or this creamy white rose
in its stoneware
vase, while outside
another white
like petals drifting down.
Is it real?
a visitor asks,
meaning the odd magenta
orchid on our sill
unnatural
as makeup on a child.
It's freezing all around us--
salt cold on the lips,
the flinty blacks and grays
of January in any northern city,
and flowers
everywhere:
in the supermarket
by cans of juice,
filling the heated stalls
near the river--
secular lilies engorged
with scent,
notched tulips, crimson
and pink, ablaze
in the icy
corridors of winter.
"Flowers" by Linda Pastan, from Traveling Light, © Norton, 2010
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