Two poems, Michael Longley

November 02, 2018Maria S. Mendes

WILD ORCHIDS

In my synapses early purples persevering

As in a muddy tractor track across the duach;

Close to the old well and the skylarks’ nest, briefly

Marsh helleborines surviving the cattle’s hooves,

Then re-emerging at the waterlily lake

Between the drystone wall and otter corridors;

A stone’s throw from the Carrigskeewaun cottage

Two introverted frog orchids; in the distance

A hummock covered with autumn lady’s tresses,

Ivory spirals that vanish for a decade;

On the higher bank of the Owenadornaun

Above the sandmartins’ nesting holes, butterfly

Orchids like ballerinas; at Kilnaboy

Bee orchids under the sheela-na-gig’s display;

Dowdy neotinea maculata at my feet

Where the turlough below Mullaghmore disappears

Underground; against limestone grey at Black Head

Red helleborines igniting; the lesser twayblade

With its flower spike like a darning needle, tiny

And hidden away beneath a heather stand;

On the Tyrrells’ Kildalkey farm, pink pyramids;

Along the path to the waterfall at Cardoso,

Near Elvira’s overgrown olive grove, tongue

Orchids folded like napkins; lizard orchids

In the Mugello, shaggy, thigh-high; on Paros

Bee orchids (again) beside the marble pavement,

A blackcap singing (in Greece or Ireland?); just one

Bedraggled fly orchid in a forgotten field,

Its petals cobalt, chestnut-brown, as I recall.