Rita Mookerjee
Magnolia Striptease
Every year I catch that muted perfume but find
the blossoms too late the blush petals already tipped
with brown exhausted from their brush with fame
their spent days of notoriety littering the campus
in slivers of rose and cream like discarded satin slippers
or nipple pasties peeled from the softest peaks of breast.
Someday I will start early and catch them at their fullest, in their
most labial, obscene, and decadent state and though I love bees
they do not interrupt me under the magnolia with her crown of beetles
and so I get a private dance in a bowing maze of strength and softness.
To think that this tree persisted for 50 million years and now
owes a debt to beetles, not bees for its survival. To think that
a body could weather this world for that long and leave me with nothing but a striptease.
the blossoms too late the blush petals already tipped
with brown exhausted from their brush with fame
their spent days of notoriety littering the campus
in slivers of rose and cream like discarded satin slippers
or nipple pasties peeled from the softest peaks of breast.
Someday I will start early and catch them at their fullest, in their
most labial, obscene, and decadent state and though I love bees
they do not interrupt me under the magnolia with her crown of beetles
and so I get a private dance in a bowing maze of strength and softness.
To think that this tree persisted for 50 million years and now
owes a debt to beetles, not bees for its survival. To think that
a body could weather this world for that long and leave me with nothing but a striptease.
Biography
Rita Mookerjee’s (she/her) poetry has appeared in Vassar Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, the New Orleans Review, Hobart Pulp, and the Offing. In 2020, she was a Fulbright Research Fellow to Jamaica. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks: Becoming the Bronze Idol (Bone and Ink Press) and Protection Rituals (Drum Machine Editions). A co-founder of Honey Literary, Rita also serves as the Assistant Poetry Editor at Split Lip Magazine. Find her on Twitter: @RitaMookerjee
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