Carnations, Incantations & Reincarnations
Overlapped pieces of petal
like alabaster palm fronds
stack ragged into delicate puffs
Two blooms sit atop
bent & bulbous, elbow stems
Each within a green cup
that gathers and grips
their wispy ends
Sparse leaves unlike leaves
No subdued-curvy edge
but straightforward, sharp tips
that poke skyward from each stem
These, his favorite flower
Available everywhere—
a pittance for a bundle of beauty
that remains unblemished
for weeks
When I see some
I send love, good luck
& my apologies to him
Pick up a cheap cluster
for my dining table
and hope one day he returns to me
———unbroken
After the Edson Smith Photo Collection Carnations
Friday Gretchen dwells in the coastal town of Ventura, California, where she is an advocate for the arts: literary, visual & performance. She helped to establish poet laureate & youth poet laureate posts while serving on the county arts council board. She has performed her work internationally and has been published most notably in Art/Life, Askew, Miramar, Solo, Spillway and within several anthologies. Her inaugural book of poetry, Unkindnesses, debuted late-2019 from Old Hat Press.