History of the Gladiola Girl (2013)

“History of the Gladiola Girl” was more of an intellectual exercise than anything else. I aimed to write a poem in conversation with itself. While I believe I succeeded in this, the poem differs form the poems previously discussed in that it lacks much emotional depth or character. I think this makes sense as it was published years earlier than the other poems featured on this website. Like the other poems featured on the website, it features a knack for imagery and prosody though neither of these harmonizes with the story as such.

Like history, she went down among the gladiola,

those thornless flowers, to find a thorny truth.

She wore a dress well-spangled with ribbons

here and there, and a gladiola in her hair.

History goes down like flowers without thorns

dying in greater gradations of drear daylight.

And she looked good in ribbons ripe

with that fresh flower scent in her hair.

Flowers descend in esplanade, as she goes and goes,

drooping gradually yet gaily until the rotting end.

She wears an ever-blooming flower

in her teeth as she does a cowboy tango.

The rotting end never comes in this sun-belted

land of thornless flowers, this sun-bonneted copse.

And she dances by herself the flower

tango, right here, a gladiola in her hair.

They droop and rise when the moon rises, the flowers,

and gradually perk up until the perfect dawn.

The tango is like history slowly going

down, until the moon. Until the moon.