Ether of Flowers

again I have plucked fluorescing
laceleaf from the ground,
for my transgressions

I have plucked jacaranda
from Yunnan morning glories
from Jerusalem

I have walked and I have crawled
on bruised hips hallowed
with your name

through trampled lavender
and sage in shavasana
and cotton a man picked

with the calloused hands
of his father and grandfather,
I have seen the oaks bloom

with sap and the poppies
shiver with both delight both
with fear of being plucked,

the rice rise from paddies
like false messiahs
their stems outstretched

reaching for a place
without form
without light

the ether between joints
the ether between planets
the ether blossoms

with yarrow and cornflower
the ether between pistil and petal
stamen and sepal golden

pollen and wind
again, I have scattered the seeds
of solitude of sorrow

I have gathered and dried
piles and piles of wreaths that pile
into hedges

aimlessly, I have walked
through mazes made of wreaths
and I believe

there is an ether
there is an ether between
the hedges of a maze

Maia Zelkha is currently an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is passionate about history, literature, language, spirituality, and her Iraqi-Jewish background. Her work has been published in Blind Corner Magazine and JLiving Media.