The jacaranda in spring
The Jacaranda in Spring
(Near Rhyme)
What discount art inspired this tawdry scene?
Eleven months a year you’re quite austere -
Too dark and gaunt, we thought, to sin in spring
By breaking out in garments so bizarre.
But just when nature tries to be aesthetic,
You to every tasteful soul’s despair,
Produce a gaudy show almost emetic -
Crass enough to make a Wordsworth sneer.
With bells yet! Shapes and colors grossly violent:
Lilac, or should we say fluorescent blue?
Perhaps instead we’ll call it shrieking violet,
Some shameless trollop’s choice for her trousseau.
July, perhaps, will drop that garish dress and*
Help us to forget your indiscretion.
*Another editor has condemned concluding a line with “and”; I had my reasons.
(1998)
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