Poem
Ian Pindar
The Wasp and the Orchid
The Wasp and the Orchid
The Wasp and the Orchid
Hiding its oneterrible testicle
underground it rises
Venus-like, immodest
bloom, complete with eyes,
antennae and wings,
its prominent labellum
(“covered in long dense,
lustrous reddish hairs”)
“similar in colour and structure
to the female wasp’s
abdomen.” It even
smells the same: “a floral
scent that imitates
the sex pheromone.”
Suckered by this
counterfeit come-on, it
attempts copulation
(properly ‘pseudo-
copulation’) – mounting
the labellum “with
vigorous waving of
wings and abdominal
probing”, “the genital
claspers at the tip of
the abdomen partially
open.” The wasp is
a part of the orchid’s
reproductive apparatus.
The wasp is an orchid.
The orchid is a wasp.
. . .
Having plucked
its rose it rests, horns of pollinia
on its head, before flying
on to the next false female.
© 2010, Ian Pindar
From: Emporium
Publisher: Carcanet, Manchester
From: Emporium
Publisher: Carcanet, Manchester
Ian Pindar
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1970)
Ian Pindar was born in London and lives in Oxfordshire. His first collection of poetry, Emporium, will be published by Carcanet in 2011, and his second collection, Constellations, in 2012. Pindar is an active writer, contributing poetry and reviews to many of the UK’s notable broadsheet and poetry magazines. Last year he was awarded the Arthur Welton Award by the Society of Authors to assist to...
Poems
Poems of Ian Pindar
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The Wasp and the Orchid
Hiding its oneterrible testicle
underground it rises
Venus-like, immodest
bloom, complete with eyes,
antennae and wings,
its prominent labellum
(“covered in long dense,
lustrous reddish hairs”)
“similar in colour and structure
to the female wasp’s
abdomen.” It even
smells the same: “a floral
scent that imitates
the sex pheromone.”
Suckered by this
counterfeit come-on, it
attempts copulation
(properly ‘pseudo-
copulation’) – mounting
the labellum “with
vigorous waving of
wings and abdominal
probing”, “the genital
claspers at the tip of
the abdomen partially
open.” The wasp is
a part of the orchid’s
reproductive apparatus.
The wasp is an orchid.
The orchid is a wasp.
. . .
Having plucked
its rose it rests, horns of pollinia
on its head, before flying
on to the next false female.
From: Emporium
The Wasp and the Orchid
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