Duplicity

Duplicity

Scottish thistle floats on the pasture,
a lavender scarf rippling in the highlands’ winds.
This silky façade with its softness to the eyes
belies the poisonous spears the thistle wields
to defy whatever beasts dare graze in its field.
Its nectar, however, a honey-birth mead,
lures the hummingbirds,
the butterflies, the bumble bees
who humbly pollenate and seed the world.
This deceptive flower, nature’s Janus,
is both an ancient remedy as well as a poison,
and leaves the gazing wanderer in awe
of the love that once saved him,
then condemned him to hell.

Cynthia Pitman

Cynthia Pitman, a retired English teacher from Orlando, Florida, has had poetry and prose published in Ariel Chart, Third Wednesday (One Sentence Poem finalist), Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Arts (Pushcart Prize nominee, 2019), Pain and Renewal anthology, Vita Brevis, Leaves of Ink, Amethyst Review, Adelaide Literary Review, Right Hand Pointing, Dual Coast Magazine, Red Fez, Literary Yard, and others.  Her first poetry collection, The White Room, is forthcoming from Aldrich Press/Kelsay Books.