Ronnie Sirmans




We turned tulips upside down
and firmly pressed the petals
so that the milk seeped out.
Mother said it helped my skin
stay so smooth so fair so long.
Style, stamen, stigma still
nourished even after sepals 
and ovary had withered away.
When added to my cereal, I could
taste crimson, cerulean, xanthous.
The darkest coffee surrendered
to that milk that was so very rich
from such delicate petaled udders. 
Sometimes bees would drop out,
drunken dead from overindulgence.





Ronnie Sirmans is an Atlanta modern media company platforms editor whose poems have appeared in Tar River Poetry, Plainsongs, Ekstasis, Dust Poetry Magazine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and elsewhere.