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A Blushing Ague

Joe Rosenblatt
From:   The Voluptuous Gardener. Vancouver, BC: Beach Holme Press, 1996.


The day was dressed in mauve
as Dr. Anaconda's daughter strolled
among some smitten hollyhocks.

They shook their dusty heads
and in a sibilant voice declared:
"Anna, how voluptuous you look today."

But she'd not abide their leering
for being dim in temperament
she was suspicious of all that leafy lechery
so palpable, it seemed to climb . . .
desiring her creamy alabescent skin.

And so Anna fled from that famished crowd
with some pollen on her blouse.

A blushing ague chilled her soul
but freed her mind to wander in the nude
back to a downy queen-sized bed
accompanied by a pair of obese cats
who drooled out her name in Felinise
but in a dialect, untranslatable—

She lay beside those mesmerizing Abyssinians
finding much comfort in their gaze
that weighed upon her painted eyelids
until she, and they, disappeared
into an azure reverie.



Joe Rosenblatt's works copyright © to the author.


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