Today's prompt was slight out of left field, but it matched how I felt - slight off-kilter after a 21 hour flight to New York. Names have always fascinated me anyways. A bit of research turned up some interesting stuff, but nothing really suggested itself as verse-worthy til I came across a beautiful old deep rich purple hyacinth called King of the Blues. Gypsy Queen is also a hyacinth - luminous apricot with undertones of melon, she was described as. Double Dreadnought is a double-petalled gorgeous blue hyacinth, and Love Lies Bleeding is another name for the amaranth flower.
With those names in hand and the fact that I'm an enthusiastic blues dancer, this is about as lucid as my brain would get on 5 hours of sleep in 30 hours.
#5: King of the Blues
Prompt: Names of Heirloom plants
Saxophone notes slither
Insinuate themselves through the scat and scatter
Of soft brushes against an indolent snare
Relaxed, stretched-skin taut
Fever and smoke and the taste of stale kisses
Of cheap beer and old failures
Lingering in the mouth.
The King of the Blues rules over it all
Dapper in fedora and deep purple suit
Trumpet slicing the night clean as a cutty sark's prow
Locking eyes with the Gypsy Queen
Luminous in apricot and flame.
Love lies bleeding, the chanteuse wails
Double dreadnought: two battleships
Armed for skirmish, two fires
Challenging each other across this dark, smoky space
Via a single, smouldering gaze.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment