New draft poems...

Porphyrophobia

The iris in spring, unfurls

it’s scented beard.

From a roaming rhizome

seeps the iridescent stain:

purple, blue and fixed magenta

pulse to inflorescent clusters,

it’s the colour

that is the rainbow’s keeper.

Iridaceae

Six times inflorescence fans

orating inky sap

and naughty nectar

from mossy damp perianth

Three falls and three petals

tent a hidden treasure:

cold clover

galbanum

sweet candy  

white amber

From a dirt-caked rhizomatous

ooze the sacred sauce

of the Tuscan orrisroot

From the Styx she draws a beaker river water

with this she puts to sleep those who forswore their daughter