info on names/legend from Wikipedia
In this poem, I incorporated the flowers’ names: bleeding heart,
lady-in-a-bath, lyre flower, Dutchman’s breeches as well as the
legend from Japan, where this plant is native. Enjoy!
photo credit: Janine Calsbeek
Lamprocapnos is monotypic genus;
this sole species of flowering beauty
like one-of-a-kind love story to make
a shogun son’s heart bleed fuchsia
did he spy the lady in her bath?
(such was King David’s waterloo)
did he, like David, strum on a lyre?
sweet music to woo heart strings
he brought her a pair of white hares
soft as silk, like his young love for her
but she nervously refused the rabbits
(perhaps she feared being scratched)
next, he offered a gift of lady slippers
richly ornamented, warm comfort
for pretty geisha girl’s dainty feet;
she rejected on pretense of poor fit
desire to win her heart possessed
him to envisage a golden gift for
such a golden girl; ah, earrings to
dangle from tantalizing earlobes
she laughed at flushed youth
in his Dutchman’s breeches
(East India Company imports)
turning cooly to her green tea
wretched soul, to believe only
forbidden touch would satisfy,
goes to misty forest with sword
to rend heart-broken wide open
May 19, 2014 @ 13:41:19
The botanical name was recently changed from Dicentra [which I could remember] into this difficult name, which I have already forgotten 🙂
I love all your puns [play-upon-words] and the names you are using.
May 19, 2014 @ 13:12:22
Beautifully done. Fun and inventive. I just took a picture of bleeding hearts yesterday and thought they looked like the inside of clams! We have lady slippers in the woods nearby.