March 29, 1994
Amaryllis.
corollas
of blood-red petals
flaring out immense
from deeper darker throats
moving out in waves
of deepest scarlet lake
alizarin and crimson madder.
Menacing
threatening
to draw you in
drown
drag you down
into those vast voracious mouths.
From deep within each silken heart
seven slender snaking tentacles
searching heads upraised
six anthers
hard on the lure
of the single female style
with its trident stigma
erupting through the lacerated hymen
the white-fringed cilia
of the backmost hollow
of each open flaring mouth.
Magnificent.
Imperative.
Unflinching gaze
of a merciless Peruvian goddess.
Erika Bizzarri 