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'The Time of Irises'

cc: Gertrud K

by Jennifer Fallein

There is the dark one
with that sheen
of fluorescent green
the impossible color
of a male mallard's neck in sun.
And there is the salmon one
I want to call it champagne,
but it is deeper
and more liquid
as though the petals
have drunk the salmon's blood.
And there colors bleed through
just under the surface
of my father's thin Swedish skin
the bruise acquired by pedaling
too far on a stationery bike.
there is also the long green
tube of stem
that so erectly holds up
those ridiculous flowers
five at a time
confident until a heavy rain
crushes down the wet ruffled weight.
And there is the green tube
food-colored in case of choking
that goes into my father's belly
maintaining his fragile weight.
There is not time
to paint the iris this year.
I have become the heavy paper
soaking up the colors
making a wash of the passing Spring.

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Jennifer Fallein has been a painter, writer, yoga instructor, nurse, and teacher in the West in the 1980s. "The Time of Irises" was published in Poems Across the Big Sky: An Anthology of Montana Poets.

Chérie Newman is a former arts and humanities producer and on-air host for Montana Public Radio, and a freelance writer. She founded and previously hosted a weekly literary program, The Write Question, which continues to air on several public radio stations; it is also available online at PRX.org and MTPR.org.
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