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.

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6

Joe Rosenblatt's works copyright © to the author.