V  P  R

VALPARAISO POETRY REVIEW
Contemporary Poetry and Poetics



 
 

~CATHERINE DALY~





BUTTERCUP



 

Beauty is in the beholder's eye.
She carries a dingy, snagged rag of yellow chiffon
and a jar crammed with grass and lightning bugs.

Capacity to ornament
the mind separates us from insects.
Cast the beam from your eye.
The sprinkler riffles the grass like a wind,
like the pursuit of light.

Her sweaty, pudgy hand crushes five wilting dandelions.
She holds them underneath her chin.
She's heard buttercups
reflect on the skin of the beautiful, which they might.

The dandelions turn her chin yellow.
 
 

© by Catherine Daly
 
 


 
 

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