Vision of Baudelaire in this North Florida forest looking into the eye
of a lizard with green purple eyeliner zigzagging its way up a burnt log
Florida Yew, Olive, neon orange day moon mushrooms
over the white bluffs of the psychiatric Apalachicola River
Valéry says shells, flowers and crystals are the privileged
objects of nature harmonic underbelly,
endless, alien recycle of gorge and interlude
George Michael died today For I live in a bubble of joy
Go out into the sun! the doctor says your blood work
is totally normal except for a Vitamin D deficiency
and left the office behind and unleashed my sentimentality
Copyright © 2017 by Sandra Simonds. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 30, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.