WHAT THE SCHOLIAST SAID:

Zara Altair said write a poem without naming it. Use juxtaposition. Write about how a chrysanthemum in bloom is like art or ants on fire.

WHAT THE SCHOLIAST SAID:

Regard the chrysanthemum
stalks, flat on the ground, 

flowers, twisting the tips 

past the roof shadow.

The spent bud

a honeycomb, 

a hornet’s nest, 

significance once as a pattern, 

but a theory of progress? 

A constant explosion 

of shapes, 

quiet, fringed, yellow, 

burning, and the bush, 

utterly consumed

No date 1982