Archives :: Ashok Niyogi
Daffodils for Breakfast
Appeared in the Spring and Summer 2005 issue.
Seven yellow daffodils,
With plant-food
In a crystal vase,
I stare
At seven yellow daffodils.
Translucent outer petals
Pale and thinly veined,
Like the fair wrists
Of a Bengali lady
Of pedigree.
The inner petal
Of denser hue,
Tubular, bulging at the base,
Funneling and flaring
Like a horse in a race,
Or maybe an inverted Victorian gown
Bordered with lace.
And then,
The mystery of the pistil,
Pregnant with organized pollen,
Straight and narrow like a shotgun mike.
A tendril inside the pistil
Smells like room freshener, atomized
For arctic ozone holes.
The refrigerator whirs back to life,
Milk from Costco will expire today,
Breakfast has to be grits.
View bio information and additional poems published in Half Drunk Muse on the author's main archive page.
Copyright 1999-2012 Ashok Niyogi.