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# Blossom
- URL: https://poetry101.love/blossom/
- Published: 2024-12-30T04:44:32.000Z
- Updated: 2024-12-30T04:44:32.000Z
- Description: by Dorianne Laux
- Author: Melissa Anderson
- Tags: Dorianne Laux, #Import 2026-11-04 19:11

What is a wound but a flower  
dying on its descent to the earth,   
bag of scent filled with war, forest,  
torches, some trouble that befell  
now over and done. A wound is a fire  
sinking into itself. The tinder  
serves only so long, the log holds on  
and still it gives up, collapses   
into its bed of ashes and sand. I burned   
my hand cooking over a low flame,   
that flame now alive under my skin,  
the smell not unpleasant, the wound  
beautiful as a full-blown peony.  
Say goodbye to disaster. Shake hands  
with the unknown, what becomes  
of us once we’ve been torn apart  
and returned to our future, naked  
and small, sewn back together  
scar by scar.

Copyright © 2018 by Dorianne Laux. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 17, 2018, by the Academy of American Poets.