PEONY BUD

a sphere as round
as earth     multifoliate—

petals folded
into possibilities

ovate leaves the backdrop
waxy with the future—

jade pigment—
the outlines

capture impatience
like waiting rain

the main event—
the pink of peonies

unmatched by roses
or clematis     what pink

was invented to express—
not a color really

but a gap in spectral light
in faint tracings

of blood     in tongues
in our labia that need

to be named and have
a voice

XERCES BLUE

The first insect lost
to human impact. The color
of Alice Roosevelt’s

famous gown, Diana’s sapphire
ring, & profusions
of forget-me-nots that still bloom

on the same San Francisco dunes
where the Xerces lived.
The males had iridescent wings.

They survive in photographs
& in our minds’ eyes.
One quarter of all

papillons 
mariposas    farfallas  
have vanished.

Laurel Brett holds a PhD in English and an advanced certificate in creative writing. She has published a book of criticism, DISQUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Cambridge Scholars, 2016), a novel called a page turner by the NYT THE SCHRÖDINGER GIRL (Akashic Books, 2020). Her debut poetry collection, PENELOPE IN THE CAR, will appear shortly from Indolent Books.

Featured image: Nikita Karasik, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons