the petal corridor, the corolla tube.

…

A blossom is a throat. Rose-oil and hip.

A ripped rose is a voice organ, time-cut

and curt. Royally red and confidence-

keeping, redder than Mars, redder than

hot days and parched, Venus on the lips.

2

A verge toward red

Muscle rose. Flesh rose.

Then rustling redshank rose.

Vines ascend the arch of aorta.

Mercurial, the climbing nightshade,

the bundle-branched bittersweet.

…

White-spotted hellebore under Jupiter

and wind. Oak lungs, jovial lungs.

Sea rush blows the lungs with sweet rose,

carmine and sanguine, flaming red.

Candleberry fires the blood.

…

Red is antispasmodic, cardiovascular.

Great garden patience of Mars.

May-blossom, hawthorn. Spring

gushes red-veined with sorrel, bloodwort

below Jupiter, red dock for longevity.

3

Ringing with wasps

Venus stokes the throatwort.

The good leaf. The rose noble.

L’herbe du siège slackens

the isthmus of the fauces.

Gash-red and choking rose.

…

Double tongue. Bay laurel.

Daphne of the sun.

Yarrow charms wasps,

snuffs the inveterate headache.

Daphne sings the bees from the ears.

…

The voice reeds are a Queen Anne’s lace

of wasps. Mercury abounds with buzz

and wild carrot, jumpstarts speech

with hoar-strange words, a gargle

of hog’s fennel and brimstonewort.

4

Touchwood and rue

Under Leo, composure.

Herb of grace. Anti-magical.

Vinegar of the four thieves.

Poison against poison. Rue before regret.

Touch wood ruta sets the garden free.

…

Lightning sulfur the garden prone

to primrose and paroxysm. Pellitory-

of-the-wall quells old hacking. An old cough.

A new moon courtesy of wild clary.

Eyebright. Clear eye (en toute bonne foi).

…

Sweep away the broom, the burdock,

the beastly antipathy between ash tree

and adder. Snakeweed. Dragon’s blood.

Devil’s bit. Serpent’s tongue. Wickedness

(a weak moon) licked & licked & licked.

5

Flesh and blood

What a commotion! Wild rocket, a racket

of wake robin, cuckoo point, the clear

caroling rise & fall. Volatile dog’s mercury.

Dog’s-grass. Dog rose. Hot fits and cold

metallic blue. The indecisive indigo.

…

So the garden bellyaches. So what

the gripes? Rows rife with tormentil,

gallant herb of the sun. Five fingers,

flesh and blood. Stamina, life’s long

thread, root-red, the unhindered heart.

…

Leaves respire and rain returns blood-veined

and blood dock, blood-colored juices. Red poppy

a headache. Heartichoke the downhearted.

Loosestrife calms the fugitive scarlet.

Sweet slumber. The fleshy rootstock.

6

Erasmus Darwin,
his Botanic Muse

Enlist imagination under the banner of science.

Flora attired by the elements.

Sea lavender, sea holly, sundrops.

Jacob’s ladder reaching ether.

Wind rose. Sun rose. Water grass.

…

The loves of the plants. (The economy of vegetation.)

Root, pith, lobes, plume, calyx, coral, sap.

Air distributes the seeds of names.

Windflower, digitalis. Tipsy and ethereal.

Trade winds, vital light. Seeds within seeds.

…

Start from the soil, and win their airy way.

The fifty-seeded heart’s delight, saturnine

and doting wild. Heart’s-ease. Herb constancy.

Pensée … An opening. Call-me-to-you. Kiss-her-

in-the-buttery. Meet-me-in-the-entry.

7

Rose

The yard wants what the yard wants.

Bloom of Ruth. Breath of life. Blush.