Oyster Boy Review 08  
  January 1998
 
 
 
 
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Poetry


The Power of Movement in Plants

Keith Flynn


        Something went wrong on the operating table
                        as the scientists
                                                struggled to design
                a more contemporary daisy
        and the people outside were peeking in the window
                                        on the prowl for celebrities
                and three Haitians
                                with hands like feathers
                were playing hide the pea
        stringing pearls together by their hope of paradise
                and everyone leaned rhyming forward
                ready to audition the daisy
                        and one scientist filled with savage thoughts
        of apostasy kept screaming GARBO ZOMBIES MAMBO
                like some kind of weird mantra
                        and a picket line of erotic children
                danced in a circle
        saying everything unfinished is a kindred spirit
                                and snapdragons groaned
                        in the brawl of a dry thicket
                and the critics with honeymoon elbow
        cruised the corridors in complete confusion
                                saying ten days before Christmas
                                Hollywood needs the daisy
                                and the tension was unbearable
        as the scientists built on the will of the people
                                        presiding over the death of history
                        and the saints of reason lusting in earnest
                whispered centuries of rebellion
        and the agnostics in their blind alleys trembled
                        and from its deep murky well
        the great daisy like a ghost woman whose face was the sun
                issued forth
                                its enormous petals unfolding
                and crickets like dark angels
        leaped singing from the buildings in ruin

        and the kingdom of flowers hardened against the shadows
                        and the roar
                                        of the daisy
                                was louder than a thousand dawns
                        and the sound of its voice was a scar.