Offering Violet

R. Nemo Hill

Offering Violet

            We bring deep purple
            bird-foot violets
                    —H.D.

and white ones,
from a distance white

clawing the lawn
pale through its green

their purple centers
unseen from afar.

I call out
but you do not turn.

You are already crossing
while I am crouching.

And so later, at home
I describe them to you

offering green to you
and white and violet.




R. Nemo Hill is the author of a novel, Pilgrim’s Feather (Quantuck Lane, 2002), a poem based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, The Strange Music of Erich Zann (Hippocampus, 2004), three poetry collections from Dos Madres Press, When Men Bow Down (2012), In No Man’s Ear (2015) and Magellan’s Reveries (2018), as well as a book of excerpts from a decade of his Southeast Asian travel journals, Just In Case It Isn’t There (2022). Forthcoming from Dos Madres is a book of poetic suites, Awake In Sand. He is the editor and publisher of EXOT BOOKS.