Orchids Poem by Dana Lamb

One day I got lost in dark, deep woods
Going in circles around a twinkling bog
Unable to see myself in its glittering waters
And then I saw withering wild orchids
Strewn all over wet grassy ground
Their delicate white petals resembled
Little children dying of hunger
With their swollen bellies covered with flies
I knelt down gathering them to my bosom
And I planted wild orchids in my heart

The flowers fed on my hot red blood
A savage orgy of magnificent color
Orchids-
With their hues of red, pink, purple, blue
Yellow, orange, crimson, green
Their dainty aphrodisiac fragrance
Smelled really good on my brown locks
Orchids made men turn their heads
As I was walking by with my eyes downcast
Yet I felt like the goddess Ishtar

Then I got lost again in my sweet floral woods
Orchids-
With their hues of red, pink, purple, blue,
Yellow, orange, crimson, green
Their decadent exuberance, their seductive gloom
Their lurid luster, their moist juicy petals
In broad daylight their leonine eyes follow me
Their putrid sweet odor makes me faint
In the pale moonlight they bare their vampire fangs
They will never set me free

I have to kill orchids before they have time
To annihilate me with their all devouring lust
I stealthily pick one orchid, color of burgundy wine
And crush it with my fingertips
And now there’s no turning back
If I killed one orchid, the rest have to follow
Now it’s easy-I go killing them one by one
I have become a murderess of orchids
And my face, my hair, my bare hands
Are smeared with their steaming blood

On my knees I gather all fallen crushed petals
They are dead now, yet it still feels a sacrilege
Dead white orchids-
They are like parts of Osiris’ immortal flesh
Meant to be put together in a sacred sarcophagus
Till the God of the Underworld wakes again in the spring
No- these breathless white petals
Are only bloated decaying cadavers
I hurl all of them into a huge mass grave
Like those in some war-torn countries

Transfixed I watch how worm fested brown earth
Gently takes my dead orchids into her final embrace
Though I murderess,
I want them to be safely entombed in her shrine
So that wild orchids will never bloom in my heart