Orchid Anatomy
This evening’s study the anatomy of the orchid,
the greenhouse glows—jut of glass at the third story
of the science building—a small, tended jungle
thriving in its humid room. Wearing identical
lab aprons, they lean over the misting table
or peer into the daintier air-orchids
in order to name and sketch the parts,
committing to memory the sepials, inner whorl
of petals, the column where male and female
fuse, and the sticky, stigmatic surface
of the pouting lip where birds, moths,
and bees would land if allowed this sterile
world. Each wall even the vaulted roof
a canvas, all their breathing dissolves
into the ordered atmosphere of this
one, sustained season—until, if seen
from the outside, the glass’s weeping would
render them recognizable but changed,
their bodies, braids, aprons, the green leaves running
into a pleasing, impressionistic bleed.
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