WILD PANSY BY LISA BELLAMY

As a seed, I was shot out the back end of a blue jay
when, heedless, she flew over the meadow.
She had swallowed me in my homeland when she spied me
lying easy under the sun—briefly, I called her Mother
before I passed through her gullet like a ghost.
In a blink of God’s eye I was an orphan. I trembled
where I fell, alone in the dirt. That first night
was a long night, early May and chilly, and I remember
rain filled my furrow. I called out for mercy—
only a wolverine wandered by. I cursed my luck,
I cursed the happenstance of this world, I smelled
his hot stink, but he nosed me deep into the mud—
this was the gift of obscurity. I germinated, hidden
from the giants of earth, the jostling stalks,
the various, boisterous bloomers, and this was my salvation.
After seven days and nights I pushed through—
yes. Here I am, kissable: your tiny, purple profusion.

(C) 2018 Lisa Bellamy. This poem originally appeared in Southern Review

• Tell the story of a wild flower. Where did it originate? How was it carried to its place of germination. What threatened it or helped it to survive? After you’ve told your story, consider your own story of seed to flowering. Where did you start? What happened? Where are you now?

• What orphans you? What help you to belong and take root? Make two lists and then compare them. What have you learned?

• Write a poem beginning with the words, “As a seed, I was…