American Dream

Maybe it was the way

she swayed

that pond lily heavy headed

filament legged sway

the clotted-cream white throat

of the one riotous bloom

her blue-veined petal skin

and bright pollen hair;

maybe, how she’d bend

and turn to show

every curve at once

—lip and lash, flat

wide bowl of hip, its taper

and swell or maybe

it was the smell of bracken;

the smell of bracken,

and further in of tide

and at the heart

that absinthe hint,

fleeting  subtle  sweet

allelopathic rot of root

and slow decay.

“American Dream” first appeared in The MacGuffin, Vol. XXV, No. 1, Spring 2009.