Bellissimo at the Garden Party
Spiked second-cousin to a daisy,
All the joy and twice the size.
I like your pincushion roundness
and the plump solar illusion
at your centre
while all around you
clump ragged rays of deepest pink,
close packed as a fringe
or a quivering halo-
that too, of pins.
I daresay no one else will eulogise you so;
your home is a redundant sink,
proportion is not your forte,
neither is delicacy,
you tend to go in gaps.
So here’s to all things overlooked,
awkward, spontaneous
and colourful.
Here’s to careless embroidery,
and broken threads,
to cheerful but ill-founded aspiration
and the eternal quest to be something lovely.
May you too find your moment on the lawn.
Annie Kissack is a poet from the Isle of Man. A teacher, she enjoys writing poetry and songs in both Manx Gaelic and English.