Georgia on My Mind

Yvonne Zipter

Georgia on My Mind

Spathe and spadix—suggestive
of a witchy incantation. Clearly,
I’m under the calla lily’s spell.
The sensuous curve of the spathe,
 
the broad blade of it undulating,
its deep pink inner lining bleeding
into the green outer edge,
it motions to me with the bend
 
of its come-hither tip, the blush of it
like that of a schoolgirl. The pale spike
of the spadix wrapped inside brings
Hepburn’s reedy voice into my head
 
like a favorite song—the famous line
about blooming again. Roses, those
popular girls, try too hard with their
flagrant flounce and brazen fragrance.
 
The calla lily is the strap of a ball gown
hanging low to reveal the soft slope
of a shoulder. It’s a studied elegance,
a shy glance, a flush of desire.




Yvonne Zipter is the author of the poetry collections The Wordless Lullaby of Crickets, Kissing the Long Face of the Greyhound, The Patience of Metal, and Like Some Bookie God. Her published poems are currently being sold individually in Chicago in two repurposed toy-vending machines, the proceeds of which are donated to the nonprofit arts organization Arts Alive Chicago. She is also the author of the nonfiction books Diamonds Are a Dyke’s Best Friend and Ransacking the Closet and the Russian historical novel Infraction. She is retired from the University of Chicago Press, where she was a manuscript editor.