First Flower for the Day Amaryllis 3-9-2020

A new year but my old friend bursts out as usual. I have some reds but my orange ones

always arrive at the head of the line.

         

The stigma is the amaryllis "MeToo" moment, ready for action.

The anthers are hoping to oblige ready or not.

           

Without the drama of words its pretty mundane.

                     Amaryllis

By Connie Wanek

A flower needs to be this size

to conceal the winter window,

and this color, the red

of a Fiat with the top down,

to impress us, dull as we've grown.

Months ago the gigantic onion of a bulb

half above the soil

stuck out its green tongue

and slowly, day by day,

the flower itself entered our world,

closed, like hands that captured a moth,

then open, as eyes open,

and the amaryllis, seeing us,

was somehow undiscouraged.

It stands before us now

as we eat our soup;

you pour a little of your drinking water

into its saucer, and a few crumbs

of fragrant earth fall

onto the tabletop.