Today’s poem is “Thirst” by Mary Tracy. She helped found Friends School of Portland and served as its Director of Studies and middle school language arts teacher. Her greatest pleasure was helping students discover that they could write well and powerfully. Her work has been published in Balancing Act 2, by Littoral Books.
She writes, “It was one of those poems that unrolled pretty much in order and was fun to play with as I tried to paint the beauty and elegance of the calla lilies. The ending surprised me enough that I knew it was true - I wasn't just longing for spring, I was desperate.”
Thirst
by Mary Tracy
I placed flowers in my bedroom
on a cold March day
a luxury, I used to believe
until this bright freeze
calla lilies unfurling
gently, precisely
ballerinas barely arcing
with dark pink rims
whispering peony fuchsia
rose begonia
bleeding lightly
into creamy goblets
each with a verdant spine
seaming upward to a thin point
and downward green
veins funneling
into a hollow stem
unmarred by leaf or thorn
a sleek throat for
drinking
in measured
sips, not
gulping like I am
at winter’s end
Poem copyright ©2019 Mary Tracy.