Ode to a Giant Waterlily by Stephen Bone

 


Stephen Bone’s first collection, In The Cinema, was published by Playdead Press in 2014, followed by a pamphlet, Plainsong (Indigo Dreams Publishing 2018).

 

 

 

             

             

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ode to a Giant Waterlily

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beneath

the moon, you flower

bridal white.

Gigantic Amazonian

enticing scarabs

to enter

the warm perfumery

of your heart,

offer a nectar banquet

in return for pollen

smothered backs.

A petalled jailor,

your guzzling suitors

caged, until next evening

as a magenta dandy

you unlock the soft gates,

then sink yourself

on your second day

to the shadowed depths.

Leftover

from primordial pools,

your stork leg stalks

and undersides barbed

fiercely as an iron maiden.

Your floating pads,

stepping stones

for Lily Trotters, sunbeds

for caimans. Vast green

salvers on which to serve

a grinning child.

 

Stephen Bone

 

Sundews by Stephen Bone

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