from \'Germinal\'

from \'Germinal\'

from \'Germinal\'

1. Primevère Primrose

first yellow yes
but the very first
rose of the first
spring firsting
(a honeyed fist)


2. Platane Plane Tree

bark peels off in patches
leaving a mottled trunk
(inside spring pushes
out new skins) or
thickens and cracks


3. Asperge Asparagus

sparrow grass marks you
greenscented
leaving its tang in your water
all this hurry into life
(a lily stem)


4. Tulipe Tulipe

still life never
motionless but fragile
in wind a turban
unwound (how
far a flower)


5. Poule Hen

women are fragile
on dating apps
and difficult to monetise
(he said) their golden
eggs in a basket


6. Bette Chard
your stem a streak
of golden red on green
(with this resilience
you’re holding on) holds out
against the cuts


7. Bouleau Birch

here’s a silver skin
that peels away in layers
against the pull of work
(hold tomorrow still while I
rip yesterday from your back)


8. Jonquille Daffodil

in the rushes (running late
on screens of inward eyes)
this is yellow still
trumpeting its own face
multiplied


9. Aulne Alder

roundish leaves
waved and toothed
in late green days
(your underwater wood
keeps the city afloat)


10. Couvoir Hatchery

counting the days
or counting the chickens
there you go hatching tomorrows
(where profit is nothing but
your own broken shell)