Svendborg Sound

1. Ramsløg (Allium Ursinum)

All May, and everywhere
            the scent
of scallions seeps in from

            the shadows
wherever the Baltic salts
            the open air

in breezy atmosphere appear
            these thigh-
high, earth-grown, earthbound

            constellations:—
white popcorn clusters bursting
            at the ends of

long green reedy shafts, now lit
            hand-held
sparklers, now shooting stars.

            Or frozen
meteor showers in seemingly
            endless rows

of shadowy bouquets, these
            sweetly
pungent edible wildflowers.

                    2.
                    Late June
when Denmark's surrounding waters
                    warm, so

will return the transparent iridescent
                    swarms
of jellyfish that float along the docks

                    and wash
ashore each year. I could watch them
                    for hours

these brilliant see-through negligees
                    unfurling
condoms catching light and rainbows

                    in the bilge
of moored motor boats bobbing
                    up and down;

at first they seem pure contaminant:
                    garbage bags
misused, made only to be discarded:

                    aimless,
transitory, containing nothing and
                    nothing

themselves; but look close: see one
                    open
then pulse, all waking eye. And there

                    you are
          —another waking I.

Tweet
Copyright © 2011 Rick Hilles All rights reserved
from Salt Hill Journal
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission