Stargazers
It hurts how
much they want
to be alive:
Blush vulvas
sprung from snug
green pods grenading
into spangled showgirls
to declare summer
half over.
Jayne Mansfields
of the garden bed
they outpink even
the potted fuchsia.
It makes no sense
their stems don’t
need a stake.
I can hardly suffer
their coquettish
carpe diem bosoms
bobbing in the sun.
Would that I could crush
the sealed buds open—
to get the scab
without the cut.
MAGGIE DIETZ is the author of That Kind of Happy (University of Chicago Press, 2016) and Perennial Fall (Chicago, 2006). Read more.