Sunflowers Unintelligible
The universe before sin – before
commentary…
-EM Cioran
The sunflowers, once upright,
are now bowed.
Their leaves, once tabards,
are now rows of capes protecting
hunchbacks.
Their faces still look at the ground,
and birds pick at the seeds.
The asemic whorls of those seeds.
The asemic lines on their shells.
The patterns on the shells hidden
inside their throngs.
Plenitude and information, totally
organized,
impossible to decipher.
The knowledge of those patterns,
aware they exist,
the information without message and
impossible to reply,
(except for the asemic typing
responses of birds):
nutritious erasures.
And the leaves are so reflective,
their dark greens turned to silver
blazes,
the day before they retire their sap.
Terry Trowbridge
Bio:
Researcher Terry Trowbridge’s poems are in Pennsylvania Literary
Journal, Carousel, Lascaux Review, Kolkata Arts, Leere Mitte, untethered, Snakeskin Poetry, Progenitor, Nashwaak Review, Orbis, Pinhole, Big Windows, Muleskinner, Brittle Star, Mathematical Intelligencer, Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, New Note, Hearth and Coffin, Synchronized Chaos, Indian Periodical, Delta Poetry Review, Literary Veganism and more. His lit crit is in BeZine, Erato, Amsterdam Review, Ariel, British Columbia Review, Hamilton Arts & Letters, Episteme, Studies in Social Justice, Rampike, and The /t3mz/ Review. Terry is grateful to the Ontario Arts Council for his first writing grant.