FEATURED: Flowers in My Belly and Other Poems

by Deidre Braley

FLOWERS IN MY BELLY

You tell me to have fire

in my belly and I search for flames,

or at least a whiff

of smoke

but it seems to have

gone out and, from its ashes

flowers have burst forth

a combustion of color

from a carpet of dusted embers

the merry things wave,

hardly concerned

for anything but beauty

with a capital B.

You tell me to have fire

in my belly, but I can only find

flowers there;

can I hand you a poppy

and call that Love,

instead?

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL AT DAWN

I pant; I almost

drool, so enthralled am I

to discover that

on this Tuesday morning—with

its frustrations and

limitations, its borders of

boredom like all

Tuesdays before—on

this day

your words

l e v i t a t e

they lift off the page

and rise to meet

me, not just in color, but

in fully-formed

worlds

could it be

that the long-cold curse

is melting?

And how long now before

you appear, old friend?

You loom on my horizon of

consciousness; I tremble at such

tremendous promise.

I am a child, nose pressed

against the windowpane

of Heaven.

Even your shadow

puts flowers in my belly

and oh, good God:

I’d almost forgotten

here in this dark night

how blossoms of the fourth dimension

can exist in such brilliant

technicolor.

DEIDRE BRALEY

Deidre Braley is a freelance writer and editor who lives in Maine with her husband, Ethan, and their children, Theodore, Vivian, and Alden. She is author of The Second Cup, a weekly blog that encourages women to blow past the small talk and get to the good stuff. Deidre serves as the Editorial Content Director at The Truly Co., and has been published in their publication, along with The Joyful Life Magazine, Aletheia Today, and others. Her poem, "Not Lost or Looking," will be published in Maine Women Magazine. Her debut chapbook, The Shape I Take, is out now with Bottlecap Press.