THE HAIKU

blood droplets
in empty fields
poppies populate

POPPIES
The poem.

They plotted the past year in cells where
no light could penetrate.
Now they've arrived, spreading over the free fields

with a shocking ugly beauty that will seduce
then hypnotize.
What you mistake for stamens are antennas

turned to frequencies beyond understanding --
why do poppies sprinkle our tender earth
with droplets of blood?

Where do they come from? Underground first
but now dangerous, advancing, leaving
vast, red emptiness in our parks and fields--

picked poppies in a vase don't last one day.

Marjon van Bruggen.