TWO RED FLOWERS

 

Two red flowers

Stand

In my garden

Under the sapphire sky.

 

Two canna blooms

In all their flames

Of crimson and scarlet

And vermilion.

 

They stand blazing bright

Under the white noon-sun

Over the dark-green shrub

In the midst of the thick herbage.

 

The two flower-flames

Stand as sentinels

Sentinels of hooded serpents

Serpents made of fire.

 

At every southern breeze

The flower-flames flicker,

The fire-hoods

Move in rhythm,

The flower-flames

Swing in prayer

Sing in silence

To the sun above.

 

The two red flowers

Are two naked hearts

Hearts of red blood

Blood made of fire.

 

No butterfly approaches them,

No insect attacks them

They stand in all their majesty

Lost in ecstasy of mystic expression.

 

The two red flower-flames

Are hooded serpent-flames

Made of naked spirit

Stripped of all mater.

 

–SANJIVA DEV

 

 

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