John Bargowski

Nearly Wild

Let’s take the sharp knife,
stand together at the sink,

and cut each stem under
warm running water,

let’s pretend we don’t see
the petals already withering

along the fringes,
rust pustules spreading

from sepal to sepal,
let’s strip the leaves

the beetles have been at
and lie to each other

about the thorns,
let’s mix in sword ferns,

a sprig of baby’s breath,
and arrange them all

in a jar of rainwater
and buffered aspirin,

collect every grain
of pollen the anthers spill

on our table and use it
to spice our tea.

JOHN BARGOWSKI received the 1999 Theodore Roethke Prize and a New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowship. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Poetry Northwest, and Poet Lore among others.

“Nearly Wild” appears in our Spring 2003 issue.

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