January 5, 2021

the ugliest orchid in the world **

It turns out no one is immune from beauty’s scalpel glare. In Madagascar, a quiet species
has been stripped of its privacy, singled out from the lither, more resplendent neighbors.
Worse, it’s been felled even lower by comparison, its own cousins trotted out 
for their voluptuous splay against the landscape. I imagine a rage of finger-pointing, 
the cameras’ intimate leer, the press corps pecking the innocents like carrion. 
I picture the sudden sunk confidence of the stems, doubt flooding the roots,
a new and unsettled reflection that shadows every instinct to bloom.
Still, I like to think we’re all superlatives of something, grand-prize winners carrying 
a questionable grandeur when we’re late to the meeting, or disappoint our children, 
or when we pause at the bathroom mirror in wonder at the face staring back. 

** This poem is inspired by an article in Atlas Obscura about the Gastrodia agnicellus orchid in Madagascar.