Black Orchid

‘Happy Divorce Day’, darling – hence
these ‘Flying Flowers’; testament indeed,
to the feelings I still have for you.
A surprising kind of plant...one might
almost say ‘pervy’, this revolutionary
new orchid, with a sex-life extraordinaire.

Hermaphroditic, narcissistic – this orchid,
one hundred percent self-obsessed; a little
like you, my own, my sweet. So cherish it,
nurture it, my chickadee, and it will survive –
that I guarantee. More than can be said
of our fleeting, love affair.

Who needs sex, anyway? A sordid,
inconvenience – apart, of course, from
the necessity of procreation. How are the kids,
by the way? It might be nice to see them,
sometime – both still the image of you,
I dare say, or so you maintained.

If these orchids could speak, doubtless,
they’d say, ‘To hell with ‘the birds and the bees’!
It takes or leaves them as it chooses; in the absence
of a mate, it resorts to a ‘do it yourself’ modus
operandi. Performs a ritualistic dance – almost
defies the law of gravity. Speaking of which,
how go your belly-dancing classes, by the way?