Karen George

I’m author of five chapbooks, and two poetry collections from Dos Madres Press: Swim Your Way Back (2014) and A Map and One Year (2018). My work has appeared in Adirondack Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Naugatuck River Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, and SWWIM. I review poetry at Poetry Matters: http://readwritepoetry.blogspot.com/. Visit my website at: https://karenlgeorge.blogspot.com/. 

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Zinnias, 1921

White, soft pink, raspberry
painted against pale, dreamy blue

Fuzzy, as if viewed through
wavy glass or a glare of sun

Edges rounded, except
for a green stem, a leaf blade

Sex organs flecked yellow at the center
One zinnia’s lower petals a silvery array

of mini curved moons starting
their spent descent to earth

Sweet blear of summer heat
how objects look when you fall asleep

fluid, as you slip into the dream
where your husband returns to life

body no longer scarred, lungs unhampered
spine perfectly aligned, lips supple plums

And you wake, a sweet-bitter
tang on your tongue

as if you’d bitten
into plush, heady petals