Tangential
by Irene O鈥橤arden
It overwhelms, this daily
silhouetted beauty: paper-cut
delicacy. Paper-cut pain,
too鈥揳cute, specific yet tangential
to swaying candy-floss phlox;
tangential to the fat-leaved,
child鈥檚-idea-of-a-tree catalpa
who blooms June panicles
of speckled orchids; tangential
to the daylily鈥檚 friendly orange
swat: saying, like an aunt,
how much you鈥檝e grown.