The Orchid Keeper
They dazzle the glass shelves
of his greenhouse, luxuriating
in the Latin of their names
he rolls off his tongue easily
as the letters of the alphabet.
Their seventeen-year-old keeper,
both prodigy and star linebacker,
tends them daily before and after
school, football practices, games and girls.
He says the first one he saw,
piquing what he knew would be
his lifelong passion, hurling him
toward a doctorate in botany,
was named for and had blooms like
chunks of red meat.
Larry D. Thomas
Posted over on Radiant Turnstile
1 comment:
That's pretty unusual for a 17-year-old.
Do you think this is true?
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