Golden saffron sky-being of yellowed flower sun.
Your waning moon cotton shimmers
Blow for your wish
as morning greets chamomile dawn
seeds twinkle like stars
while night draws your green cape for sleep.
Astrid spindles outward
Root-brew eases gut punch
becalm empty stomachs
Flowers dye their legacy
pollen butters noses and bee bottoms
Longevity’s cyclical game
Floret lofted
you are
breeze worthy
Master survivor,
when did you become
a plagued pest plucked?
Emerald green conformity
poisons your pride
So that blond mane drivels to dry.
Yet come Spring, nectar
stokes revitalization
promising to host a new generation.
—
Shelli Rottschafer completed her doctorate from the University of New Mexico in 2005 in Latin American Contemporary Literature. From 2006 until 2023 Rottschafer taught at a small liberal arts college in Michigan. Summer 2023 she began her low residency MFA in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University. She resides in Louisville, Colorado and El Prado, Nuevo México.
