Flower Conroy

Corporal Pleasance

Crop of warped shadows: skullcap—lungwort—heart-
wood—& bleeding heart.  I invite you in… suspires
the monoecious garden, offspring of paradise.
Her wicked entrails mushroom succulents,
belladonnas, splinter flowers.  Amidst the slow-gulping
fringe-mouths of Venus flytraps,
she peels back the layers of her perfect skin.  Witness
the thistles’ subtle dance.  Cry of cherry jubilee.
Some believe the forbidden fruit, she plucks
a planetary orb mantled in gray fuzz, was not apple,
but quince.
 I bite astringent meat & fall
back into a cocoon of leaves but not before
a thorn—with its single, deft stroke—like the opening
of a letter—fingernails my cheek.






The poetry of Flower Conroy has appeared in numerous literary journals including Serving House Journal, BlazeVox, Saw Palm, American Literary Review, Psychic Meatloaf, Cliterature, and others. She is an only child and a Pisces and her favorite color is green. Originally from New Jersey, she now lives in Key West, FL.