Primordial Heart
Along fences, between
grasses, a churn of irrepressible stems
and leaves appears
bristled, silver,
flower buds heavy as initiates’ heads
bent in contemplation,
multiplying cell upon
cell in silent ritual: from darkness, a body,
from this fragment
of rememberer, re-
member yourself—a seed split
into sentience.
Anther and filament,
pistil and ovary, in each papery-orange papaveri
a dark dome forms
like the punctum saliens—
the throbbing dot of a primordial heart.
A single poppy
bursts before others,
one small fire in the green surge,
elemental petals
red as cloud-waves thrust
from a dying star saying again what is—this is—
in the fertile field.
Radha Marcum’s work is rooted in ecological, social, and personal landscapes of the American West. Read more.