Ficaria verna

Poisonous lesser
      celandine or pilewort
flower of language
      that shrinks
from the cold and rain
      that rises and sets
with the sun
      enjoys neither courage
nor choice being subject
      to sheer necessity
ages through
      one rough day
after another withered
      hairless and hueless
kept alive by the poet’s
      inly-muttered voice

John Lyons