The Water Lillie Contemplating Suicide
The flower rickshawed through her,
a water blossom yellow and strong
like a plank of wood, smooth and narrow,
a one by two, only true as if true
could ever be exact or honest
or even a deity worth dying for.
The stem of her body fluid and full,
her root work deep and philosophical
as if the voice of pain could ever be a flower,
the thick trunk of a tree, a nearby stream
bubbling over river rock, the carcasses
of the dead fish who swim there.
Michael H. Brownstein has
been widely published throughout the small and literary presses. His
work has appeared in The Café Review, American Letters and Commentary,
Skidrow Penthouse, Xavier Review, Hotel Amerika, Free Lunch, Meridian
Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Pacific Review, Poetrysuperhighway.com
and others. In addition, he has nine poetry chapbooks including The
Shooting Gallery (Samidat Press, 1987), Poems from the Body Bag
(Ommation Press, 1988), A Period of Trees (Snark Press, 2004), What
Stone Is (Fractal Edge Press, 2005), and I Was a Teacher Once (Ten
Page Press, 2011). He is the editor of First Poems from Viet Nam (2011).
