Deborah Leipziger

Flower Map

The flamboyant tree is my sign:
turn towards the path
hidden by jasmine.

A black bird accompanies me
past fronds
and thorns
the gates a mosaic of longing.

Peeling trees
reveal layers of green maroon bark
Yes, this is the path.

Are those frangipani, flowers falling
inverted onto the sidewalk
a core of yellow? Magenta

bougainvillea
spills out over the roof
lush and wild in its joy.

 

San Juan 2010

Note: This poem was published previously in Popt Art.

The creation of turquoise

It didn’t happen all at once
the elders would say later
then again, it seldom does

Every creation is intentional
even destruction can take its time,
rather it was the inexorable
chipping away of the sky
one kernel at a time
small fragments of
rupture, rapture
and when the sky touched the earth
the impact created
veins in the stone
so each turquoise would tell the story
of sky and earth colliding

Note: The creation of turquoise was previously published in The Muddy River Poetry Review.