fantastical flora & fauna

For some reason, I’ve been thinking about fairy tales.

I’ve already mentioned that the tree lupin buds made me think of alien claws, but I’m pretty sure the plant is terrestrial, so perhaps it’s more like the talon of a mythical bird.

Lupins weren’t the only flowers I found in my mother’s garden last week that transported me into the world of the imagination.

Aquilegia always make me think of fairy stories: maybe it’s because they’re just the sort of flowers I’d expect to see in a Pre-Raphaelite painting or an illustration by Arthur Rackham, or maybe it’s because they’re also called granny’s bonnets and there’s an automatic connection in my mind with the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood.

And then there was the magnolia, whose blossoms were almost over and beginning to show their true dragon nature.

So let’s finish up with an as-yet-untitled dragon poem:

I am lying alongside a dragon

I inhale slowly
hold
exhale
and hold

I am lying alongside a dragon
thunder rumbles softly in his throat
a storm receding

I inhale slowly
hold
exhale
and hold

I am lying alongside a dragon
dull and unaware
his foreleg pinions me

I inhale slowly
hold
exhale
and hold

I am lying alongside a dragon
I can feel his hot breath on my neck.