I’m trying to tell you
          I’m trying

                                 my petals’ attempt
at opening

                  an articulate tongue

    the phylum anthophyta

                                  glass breaking in the sun

I am Late Jurassic
   early Cretaceous

                                   it’s true I don’t belong
here among your desiccated peonies

I plead bee telepathy

          antennae

                          someone read
                                              my mind

before the era ends
                                  before I swallow

pyrethroids

     over ensuing millennia I can’t promise
                                                       I will adapt

(originally published in Ginosko Literary Journal, Fall 2021)