Unraveled, by Brent Short

Unraveled
 
                                                                   I decided if I could paint that flower in 
                                                                   a huge scale, you could not ignore its 
                                                                   beauty.
                                                                                                Georgia O’Keeffe
 
Their shapes, inner folds
turned out in twists and turns,
all part of one smooth continuity.
 
Monumental flowers,
luminous bodies, delicate and vast,
panoramic, each petal
 
a harmony of line and curve,
color and shade, 
a sensuous connection radiating 
 
inside the spaciousness of a dream,
feminine, rapturous--
each flower 
 
a distilled essence.
Wordless, shaped by light and memory,
an undulating landscape
 
and luscious contour, cool design,
pure, silent.
Gigantic flowers with their open mouths 
 
and tongues, 
their presence magnified, 
right down to their very centre,
 
opened out to mystery--
their allure, like a fragrance that tells all 
remaining its own secret.
 
Flowers rising,
abstracted flames 
knowing neither time nor wither,
 
filled with 
the languid desire 
of hidden things--
 
clear and moving,
blooming with a river’s 
widening flow.

Brent Short
​
Brent Short lives in Tampa Bay, Florida. His poetry chapbook, The Properties of Light was published in 2015 by Green Rabbit Press. His poetry has appeared in Saint Katherine Review, Tar River Poetry, San Pedro River Review and The Thieving Magpie.