Marian De Saxe

This is no flash flower,

this unfolding page of text

a starfish all at sea in hard print.

Botanists call this stranger

a carrion. Its odour is unpleasant,

designed for blowflies,

not us, a tie of demand that hurts.

Glabrous, all it can do is embellish,

in an almost ordered way.

I am reminded of stacked boxes

in a factory, kilometres, all neat,

uniform, profit-making,

the stacker immiserated,

immersed in a flight of thought

against the clock.

There is another way.

In the patch this stapelia

extends a firm, scrawny arm

clutching a closed envelope

like a secret.

Only one flap of the corolla is open.

Try measure the day by how many words it takes

to float the chrysalis

Marian De Saxe’s poetry has appeared in Westerly Magazine and Ink, Sweat and Tears. She has reviewed for Wasafiri Magazine and Media International Australia and is also published in Sydney Studies in English. She lives in Sydney.