I Gently Blossom

 By Jade Riordan

meadowsweet between the thoughtful

earth of my brain’s gyri, watercolour

the dry drip of my thirst, then spit

-shine the candelabra of my bones.

I look for my soft, shrub-scratched

self in a wild tangle of mirrors, glass

-y sparrow eyes wide & sky-weighted;

my insides adorned with feathers. This

graceful creature of flight big-eyed

watching from my reflection. Blink

& I am the faintest leaving,

the most indistinct velvet returning.

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Irish-Canadian poet Jade Riordan lives and writes north of 60 in the land of the midnight sun. She is currently a medical student at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her poetry has appeared in The Blue Nib, Foreign Literary Magazine, Nokturno, Room, takahē, and elsewhere.

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