Monotropa uniflora
Parasite beneath
spruce gloom,
sown like
dragon’s teeth,
raising that brood
of pallid heads
like a hydra’s ghost
from boreal humus.
From a corpse of peat,
old worm castings,
rotted needles,
and mouldered leaves
protrudes
each stem,
splintered bone
of tibia or spine.
Each bloom arcs
and lifts,
delicate
as death’s rattle,
the ache
of cholera
shuddering
and pale.
Touched, it
blackens to soot;
plucked,
never revives.