Words for Wednesday

Dahlias

by Sarah Day

Strangely bright
their electric colours
leap at me
from dark places.

At night I smell
the rusty rag leaf, brown water;
through the black
their lurid shapes come flaunting back,

shockingly exposed.
Their rude truth glares at me.
I shut my eyes.
The air weighs thick with acrid odors.

Source: Australian Poetry Library

More about the poet: The Write Stuff, Sarah Day