Regeneration

Regeneration

Bethany Chez

After Bloom by Scott Erickson

Forget butterflies in the stomach. Now,
they’re delights in my chest cavity,
amongst flowers heavy like a weighted blanket 
or bride’s bouquet. They pollinate life. 
Ladybugs and bees hear and fly 
to these daises and ranunculus, create
that gold-sticky stuff I want snug in my veins. 
It cannot grow alone. Soon it becomes buds, 
those already not yet sweet bundles 
of foreshadowing. Hundreds of petals
tickling my sternum, making me push back 
my shoulders, open up to the sunlight, stars,
to keep the flowers breathing. They grew 
over and on and despite my anatomical heart.

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Bethany Chez
Poet

Bethany Chez is a poet living near Philadelphia. She received her M.S.Ed from the University of Pennsylvania and studied creative writing at Allegheny College. Her work has been published in ONE ART Poetry Journal and she reads slush at West Trade Review. 

Photography by Kier Insight