Mama's Orchid, by Chella Courington

An Orchid, by Georgia O'Keeffe (USA) 1941

Mama’s Orchid
 
girl, just look at that flower
 
all green and yellow
swimming together
spilling 
over the edge
like rainbow sherbet
mama made in july 
and spooned into glass cups
that slipped 
from our sticky hands 
crashing
on the black and white
linoleum she laid
when too old 
to bear children.
 
just look at those petals
 
fringed in lavender
a feather boa
she tossed 
over her shoulder
cascading
down a satin back 
saturday nights
as daddy dipped her
to radio blues
with us praying
for long legs
and to stay up past nine
when ella and billie 
brought it on home.
 
never cared for real orchids
 
those hothouse types
too busy
being fussed over
still don't bloom
like that purple flower
mama loved
to wear on her birthday
and afterward 
stored it in the icebox
till petals turned brown.

Chella Courington

Chella Courington is a writer and teacher whose poetry and fiction appear in numerous anthologies and journals including Spillway, Los Angeles Review, and Lavender Review. Her flash novella, Adele and Tom: The Portrait of a Marriage (Breaking Rules Publishing), was published in February. Originally from the Appalachian South, Courington lives in California.