Blue Orchids
by Fiona Vigo Marshall
How can I tell the blue mystique of orchids,
The way they breathe, their luminous-numinous
Cut out from living sky, pulsating blue light.
Here in the supermarket in their steel grey cage,
Just wheeled in, banged next to bottles of bleach,
Harsh navy and hieroglyphics sprawled beside.
Five blue angels drawn up, stretched tall
Soaring above their scrumpled wrappings,
Who’s good enough to buy them?
Fresh from heaven, they observe with amazement
Vast ships of flesh come sailing in,
Clutching empty baskets to be filled again
And again, holds that can never have enough.
For the first time they smell the fester of death,
Babies’ nappies left too long, the stench
Beneath wet cardboard, decaying fruit.
We can’t prevent this; free will means
We have to let it run its course.
No one notices them shouting from their corner.
Fiona Vigo Marshall’s poems have been published in a variety of outlets including Aesthetica, Ambit, Orbis, and Theology Journal. Her short story “The Street of Baths” won the V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize 2016, and her story “The Marvellous Book,” Phantom Drift 2017, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her novel Find Me Falling is published by Fairlight Books, Oxford, 2019, and her second novel, The House of Marvellous Books, is published by Fairlight Books, spring 2022.
