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| Daffodil corona by Nick Harris |
1
Crown of stars
Corona
The rarefied gaseous envelope
of stars, our sun
Unfathomable halo,
obscured by the relentless
blaze of plasma, hydrogen, and helium
Only a perfect eclipse—
miracle of astronomic alignment—
permits us a glimpse
of the pearly glow
flaring out from the black disk
of the superimposed moon
2
Crown of thorns
We take care not to confuse
illness with death,
or melancholy with mourning
Now our sickness and our death
seem inseparable and
we are blind to the distinction
And in these days
depression and grief
run along parallel lines
and converge on the horizon
under a crown of flames
under a crown of glory
3
Crown of flowers
Corona
Shaped like a cup or a trumpet,
the flared center of the common daffodil
amaryllis paperwhite triandrus narcissus
a perennial: it flowers, dies—
but the gardener does not say it dies,
she says it “dies back”
It is time to sort our sickness from our death
Die back and grow again another year
Author’s Note: Some of the language in part 1 is from the Google dictionary entry for “corona.” Howie Good contributed the “crown of …” phrases.
Dale Wisely runs Ambidextrous Bloodhound which publishes four journals: Right Hand Pointing, One Sentence Poems, Unbroken, and Unlost. His chapbook Seven Stars is out in April 2020.