Flourish

Clematis, sweet pea, sweet alyssum, sweet asylum,

adornment’s adamant heaven scent

to bed an arbor’s ardor,

trellis’s yes this

reaching toward its own reward,

sweet re-aching might redeem what seems

a frail unfurling to refuge instead, re-fugue

played in contrapuntal context shows some pragmatist’s thanks

thriving not only as noun and verb, but stem, climbing

aster and hydrangea, honeysuckle, wisteria, twine and tendril

reaching skyward toward

as if to pick a warden’s lock,