Maybe the message wasn’t wholly intentional,
but there it is, in all its suggestive glory:
the program brochure,

color photo of an orchid,
very vaginal, white labial petals
enclosing moist pink inside,

close-up, like those O’Keefe canvasses,
and the title above:
“Pleasures of the Flower Show.”

This festival of fecundity,
this flurry of flora and perfumes,
could work its magic, like an ancient earth goddess.

Imagine a Main Line dowager,
her Panama-hatted husband in tow,
browsing the peonies and pergolas.

Suddenly she pulls him off the concourse,
and they clinch behind
the Japanese rock garden.

Unzipping him, she finds his Johnny Jump-up,
hikes up her skirt, and shows him
how much fun an orchid still can be.

05/29/2002

Author's Note: [First published in Miller's Pond (Web version), Spring/Summer 2004.]

Posted on 05/29/2002
Copyright © 2026 Bruce W Niedt