(one)

The implication if I use the noun rose

in lieu of the verb rose.

Never misspelling a thing, arranging arousal like flowers.

(two)

She tells me he told her that flowers

should only be arranged in uneven numbers

on a prearranged day of the week he offers up

three or five or seven flowers

to the vase.

Roses are never very far from the other

’s access to lace.

(three)

Things to place in vases—

Flour ashes

Dissensions

Negative space

Not for naught

The inner narrative of an urn

Contemporaneously all poetry

Words headers on dashes

A history of shards

Shapeless mess of emotion

Verb and verb constructions (I sit and write)

Filigree of ceiling rose arrangements

Electric stems lit descending before another god gets lost

god se beentjie¹ being

Are these a gift or for you? For me.

(four)

Thank god we fact-checked the name

for botanic and botanical gardens

are ambivalent meanings

when the poet steps on stage and suggests that

immigrant and emigrant might be the same

I want to rough up exegesis before everyone

but decency intervenes and the distance between thrusts

lingers.

(five)

Long-stemmed high-rises

thorns thread

shed

slit

of shears and other data I don’t know’s necessary.

(six)

City of roses² placeholder for

growing up fold up

hometown

this is no term of endearment

but an actual epithet

gaan julle blommetjies, blommetjies maak³

in desert conversational

flowers hold moisture firmly between thumb and index.

(seven)

The social ceiling

secular rosary road rage

is the most unattractive thing.

The glass ceiling

transparent minorities

mounting/s

the uppermost fixture/s of the room

pearl thongs along

lay myths down man.

Klara du Plessis is a poet and critic residing alternately in Montreal and Cape Town. Her chapbook, Wax Lyrical, was released from Anstruther Press, 2015. She curates the monthly, Montreal-based Resonance Reading Series. Follow her on Twitter.

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