The come-on
petals
of the lipstick-red hibiscus pucker up—
their round
ruffled necklines
shimmering and trembling
for
the kiss.
They wait—
erect
pistil and stamen, pollen
dead center—
hieroglyphs
of tropical syntax
meaning
sex.
Cento sources: Whitman Chambers, Amy Lowell, Richard Blanco, Hiromi Ito, Talia Pinzari, Edward Rowland Sill, Thylias Moss, Stephen Dunn, D. H. Lawrence, E. Preston Dargan, Sam Hamill, Rachel Contreni Flynn, Gerald Jonas, Mark McMorris, Carl Dennis, Michael Ryan
Little astonishments
that arch and stretch
dangling upside-down
all the way along
a slender stem—
look at the tiny way
the tear
delicate and white
drops like rain
from within.
Who will comfort them with kisses
the innocent
bleeding hearts—
with their heads
bowed by
the weight of love
and the long sorrow of the color red?
Cento Sources: W. S. Di Piero, Lindsey D. Alexander, Ross Gay, W. S. Merwin, Linda Pastan, Alice B. Fogel, Richard Crashaw, Vachel Lindsay, Christina Rossetti, Primus St. John, Katherine Mansfield, Eosder Mosquera, Carmen Gimenez, Suzanne Noguere, Langston Hughes, Pat Schneider, Naomi Shihab Nye
Caught among the withered weeds
wild carrots
flirt
in the wind
heads bobbing like
knitted doilies
round
as saucers or moons.
A hundred, and a thousand more
small and glowing
flowers
make up
the
lacey
bloom—
reminding me
of crystals hanging in the brightened air
breath condensed
or a dream of the burgeoning of galaxies.
Cento Sources: Sara Bard Field, George Koller, Marion Strobel, Clark Ashton Smith, Mai Der Vang, Stephen Yenser, Tom Sleigh, Kiki Petrosino, Richard Cranshaw, Michael Dickman, Christopher Buckley, Dora Malech, David Kresh, P. Inman, Dan Chiasson, Taneum Bambrick, Jeffrey Harrison, Richard Kenney, David Wagoner
All at once
a black net of branches
flares
with
incandescent felt tips
buzzed volts
of flower bloom
strong
enough to torch us.
When April’s here
forsythia’s
neon bright
cascade
promises
the return
of light from darkness
the glazed edge
alive
from the inside out.
Cento sources: Ed Roberson, Evelyn Scott, Adrie Rose, Michael Dickman, Sina Queyras, Li-Young Lee, Amy Lowell, Barbara Ackerman, Linda Hull, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Billy Collins, Alexie Shaun, Christine Stewart-Nunez, Thom Donovan, Frank Bidart, Debora Greger, Kay Ryan, Natasha Saje, Natasha Trethewey
Like brushstrokes
thick and clustered,
chrysanthemums
half closed, prepare to emerge.
Like a box of kitchen matches
shaken
into
a circle
little knife-stabs of gold
ignite
in a pulsing, riotous gasp of color—
distracting us
from
the black and white
of geometric light
to come.
Cento sources: John Vian, Imru Al-Qays, C. F. MacIntyre, Michael Mejia, John Herschel, Carl Sandburg, Lisa Tibbets, Hadara Bar-Nadav, Amy Lowell, June Jordan, Helene Johnson, Alessandra Lynch, Fatimah Asghar, David Trinidad, Peter Gizzi, Lee Ann Brown
Patrice Boyer Claeys is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Earth Cafeteria, a photo-verse collaboration with Gail Goepfert. Her work appears in Tupelo Quarterly, NELLE, Scapegoat Review, Passion Fruit Review and North Dakota Quarterly, among others. Nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net, she can be found at patriceboyerclaeys.com.