And when the farmer saw the giant flower
with smell like bad fish and bad sugar, he could not look away.
The purple skirt
of the bloom begged him to return.
And so he did—with a pail of water—and sang to it
and caressed it and swiped beetles away
from the blossom’s lip.
He even gave it a name and when the farmer
said the name out loud, the flower began to move—
then completely devoured him.
*
Villagers searched and searched for the farmer.
When they too stumbled upon the large blossom,
they decided to name it
after a beautiful jaguar
that once killed several children.
But this flower does not want
to be named. Does not want to be owned.
When the flower heard the name,
it stretched to the closest person
and ate her—
ate the name as well.
–Lucky Fish (2011)
Photo By: Yu
