“Look, a goldfinch is eating a yellow rose. Oh, wait,
it is an Oriole.” Quite fittingly named. The rose is Orogold.
Oro, d’or, aurum – the most precious treasure.
It is all about brightness – flashy feathers in warm,
sunny hues contrast with black wings, head, tail.

Golden blossoms flourish among vibrant, green leaves.
The Oriole wife, in camouflage, opts for a much more
mundane meal, picking ants and rolly-pollies off the lawn.
Striped with gray, she is used to living in his shade.

Look, another Oriole nibbles on a silver-red, two-tone
rose of love, by the pomegranate. What a scene!
Vivid colors outlined against white walls of the shed
at the end of a pathway lined with river rocks.

Pity, I cannot take a picture. I drowned my cell phone
in a mountain stream on Sunday. An accident waiting
to happen for 13 years, since I fell down a flight of stairs
and did not break my arms in five places as doctors
thought, X-raying me to smithereens. Instead, I lost grip
in my fingers. I drop things when I do not pay attention.

“Take a picture with your eyes, Mom.” My daughter
used to say. Enamored with a brand-new camera, I’d stop
at every blooming rose, slowing down the progress
of a family walk. My kids are gone now. I wade in streams
alone. I have all the time in the world to explore the geometry
of petals, from every angle documenting for posterity
the ephemeral gold and scarlet rainbow.

I’ve always wondered why my fully-opened roses
has such shredded edges, why they lost perfection so quickly.
I see it today. I take a picture with my eyes – as I sip the steaming
amber tea from a gold-white porcelain tea-cup and admire
an Oriole eating the Orogold rose for a fancy, fragrant breakfast.

 
© 2020 by Maja Trochimczyk

 
Published in Maja Trochimczyk Bright Skies. Selected Poems (Moonrise Press, 2022)

 
Picture 10706954, © Mary Evans / Natural History Museum

 
Maja Trochimczyk, PhD, is a Polish American poet, music historian, photographer, and author of eight books on music and Polish culture. Her nine poetry volumes include four anthologies, Chopin with Cherries (2010), Meditations on Divine Names (2011), Grateful Conversations (co-edited with Kathi Stafford, 2018), and We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology (co-edited with Marlene Hitt, 2020) as well as Rose Always – A Love Story (2008, rev. 2020), Miriam’s Iris (2008), Into Light (2016), and two prizewinning books based on Polish experiences of WW2 and its aftermath: Slicing the Bread (2014) and The Rainy Bread (2016, 2nd expanded edition, 2021). A former Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, she is the founder of Moonrise Press, President of the California State Poetry Society, editor of the California Quarterly and Poetry Letter published by CSPS, and President of Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club, promoting Polish culture in California. Hundreds of her poems, articles and book chapters have appeared in English, Polish, and translations into other languages. She has read papers at nearly 90 international conferences and received many awards from Polish, Canadian and American institutions, such as the American Council of Learned Societies, the Polish Ministry of Culture, PAHA, McGill University, and the University of Southern California. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee (2021) and winner of the Creative Arts Prize from the Polish American Historical Association (2016). moonrisepress.com