THE PLANTS EYE

Valyntina Grenier 

This is speculation I know but
idol flowers have always born
our mean making scissors
Consider scissors nature’s troop
deploying astonishing devices

The pitcher
marooned and white
not attractive unless
you reinforce the species
in question mimicry
intended to scare
the Victorians

the arc of corseted breasts

crowned w/ clitoria

Consider an insect
evolved to conceive
as female and male tantalizingly
from behind

Call the behavior 

pseudo-copulation
call the flower
prostitute
A frenzy of intercourse
ensures pollination

Our factory
is olfactory tactile attention
to not just simple chemicals
signals so far as creatures are things

to secure pollination or a meal
It's in our sanctum

As we rush around mounting
disseminating genes
flowers traffic metaphor
a meadow brims
with our making

Move the garden
Multiply 

Flowers take aim
Secure/ obscure notions long ago
crossed our own offspring

That match the
symbiosis of desire
fire in the garden

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Valyntina Grenier makes art on the side of life that insists, “Don’t Shoot.” Her poetry and visual art push the boundaries of representation and abstraction to create a vantage from which to view violence and prejudice. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in, Lana Turner, JuxtaProse, Cathexis North West Press, Bat City Review, The Volta's Arroyo Chico and Spiral Orb. Her first chapbook Fever Dream/ Take Heart (a double) is due out January 2020 from Cathexis NorthWest Press. Find her at valyntinagrenier.com or Insta @valyntinagrenier

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Purchase Fever Dream/Take Heart here!

Issue XIV