White Irises.jpeg

My poem "Irises" was published among ten Poems of Merit in the 2020 edition of The Reach of Song, the annual anthology of the Georgia Poetry Society. I'm honored to share it.

Irises

Emerald blades rise like jagged swords

along the marble edge of an old family plot.

Perhaps irises flourished here years ago,

but what color will they be

if they decide to bloom again?

 Barely surviving now, neglected,

they once graced this shady spot

where a dozen family members

lie forever in peace.

No one remembers who planted them

or when their flags first appeared.

There is no one to ask.

Perhaps the planter rests among the others

in this garden of death.

The blades are flat and fan-like.

Some rhizomes are buried,

entombed far too deep to send up stems.

Others are lying half-buried on the ground,

their tubers never piercing

a hole in the dark soil,

yet resting easy, believing their roots

will continue their work.

We dig up a few to take home to our yard.

No one will mind.

There is no one left to mind.

We will plant them in memory

of relatives who went before us.

But what color will their flowers be?

My sister guesses white.

Passing months will tell us for sure—

if the roots choose to take hold

in the garden of the living.

Carroll S. Taylor

 

 

 

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