NORWICH YEARS: VALENTINE’S DAY

VALENTINE’S DAY

She buys herself carnations in the market,

Pretending they were sent to her by someone

Whose fingers read her body in the dark.

For she who has no lover must invent one.

Flowers have a brief and poignant time

To lure the hummingbird or honeybee

Or luna moth before they wilt on the vine,

Sterile, unfulfilled and incomplete.