Face-Off: A Poem

Face-Off

 A Heliotrope/Heliotropium Poem

By Mary Dezember
Author of stories and poetry as portals to possibilities.

 

 

Crushing me to purple, you

are no god.

Your appeal is mythology.

 

I bloom,

with each floret befriending

the next,

to what, when, and whom

I choose—

and always to this—a prevailing

prevalence beyond you:

dimensional cosmic fragrant waves

perceived as mountain meadows

of music and math,

fields of flowing grasses,

icy snow dying to rivers,

rivers rushing to my sea call,

walking sticks hugging

towering trees,

rainbow wings of dragonflies,

the delicate flight of butterflies,

the buzz, boon and beacon

of every air-flight

or ground-bound

tiny glorious guy;

those minuscule colossi of love

who make the Earth work, thriving

and performing perfectly

in my perfume.

 


With your hollow ego eyes,

you cannot see.
 

I am no nymph.

My face is the receiver

of the honeyed crackling in the air

offering me a global garden

in the wilds of peace.

 

Beyond you,

stained-glass hallelujahs

and heady aromas

spiral multi-faceted in my ocean

mist, shattering your artificial temple.

Shoddy architecture!

Love doesn’t crush.

 

To you, you are all about you.

 

You, Helio, are the trope.

And loving you is no more

than a tropium addiction.

I am no addict.

 

In twilight, the world shifts;

your other interests

cater to you. I don’t

wait for your return, because

nights, I pulse even more

vibrantly.

 

Breaker to blossom,

I exist in every way

without you.

 

Helios,

I am not facing you in love.

This is a face-off.

 

I face you to say:

 

Crushing me to purple, you

are no god. And

I am no flower.

 


NOTES:

Heliotropium is a purple or violet flower in the heliotrope family. It is a flower that—based on Greek myth—faces the sun god, Helios (Apollo), in longing for him. Before being a flower, heliotropium was Klytie (or Clytie), a water nymph (an Oceanid), daughter of the pre-Olympian (Titan) god and goddess Oceanus and Tethys. Apollo once loved Klytie but then left her for someone new.

Sources:

“Leucothea and Clytie” in Metamorphoses by Ovid, Book 4, translated by Brookes More, from the Theoi Texts Library: https://www.theoi.com/Text/OvidMetamorphoses4.html

“Clytie (Oceanid),” Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clytie_(Oceanid)#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChalkomatas202295-9

“Heliotropium,” Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliotropium

The etymology of trope and tropium is “turn” or “change.”


Poem and blog post text:

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