Jacaranda Poem by Taylor Graham

We agree on this,
it’s never been so gray.
The sky won’t rain.
The concrete entrance drive,
the stucco portico.
In the wings, old people

kept from dying.
We’ve got a hundred papers
to sign. We’re at a loss
for florid verse. And yet,
when no one’s listening,
we beg each other

for a word. Out the window
a jacaranda — exotic tree
with extravagant
cerulean blooms in summer —
droops its winter-
feathered leaves.

Imagine her in blue
boas, flamenco on a breeze.
Imagine
so we can’t forget.
At the tip of every twig
a castanet.