I think my hands may fall off like peonies

This is because of my mood

For peonies it is because of gravity

My mood suggested several ideas to bring about its conclusion

I will call my mood ranunculus

A ranunculus is a beautiful flower with a very ugly name

I love it

I do not love my mood

Someone posted a picture of a public trashcan filled with giant and wilting bouquets

The thing about a ranunculus is its stem

A ranunculus stem never wilts

It stands up forever

It acts like a picture of itself

—

Heather Christle (pronounced “crystal”) is the author of four poetry collections: Heliopause (Wesleyan University Press, 2015), What Is Amazing (Wesleyan University Press, 2012), The Trees The Trees (Octopus Books, 2011), and The Difficult Farm (Octopus Books, 2009). Her first work of nonfiction, The Crying Book, was published in 2019 by Catapult. Christle is an assistant professor in the Creative Writing Program at Emory University.