Botanists Who Feel Excluded Rejoice

A flower caught in prayer is a strange flower.
Yet there it is, which someone has come to love
Enough to read to it, sing to it, rub its leaves.
But to us

A strangeness of flowers catches you praying
Between romances and convalescence, its beauty
Your own wreck or recovery you trust in.
But to us

A prayer to the strange has a flowering catch.
Its quickness escapes before you understand
How much you wanted or tried to understand it.
But to us

A caught prayer only estranges us from flowers
Whose stamens we seem to regard as tongues,
These out-of-place muscles with no meaning
But to us.

Copyright © 2004 Anthony Lacavaro All rights reserved
from Crazyhorse
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission