Poetry Series: "the daylily / three" by Dameion Wagner

You fooled me. Your ability to

thrive without needing the

tending that I imagined. If

constancy is not a word,

ceaseless is. An immutable

death at the onset of a dusky

night, sky hues like worn iron.

And you return each morning

pouting orange in defiance

until late August or until the

saddest month, September.  A

pruning then.  With a sharp

trowel or a flat-head spade at

your roots if needed.  Shears at

the wilted mat of leaves heavy

with tans and browns of

retreating chlorophyll.  I am

here for you.

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Dameion Wagner lives and works in Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has appeared in Crab Creek Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, As It Ought To Be Magazine, Tilde: A Literary Journal, Cider Press Review, and most recently Bear Review. His reviews appear in Heavy Feather Review, The Rumpus, and The Adroit Journal. He was nominated for the Sundress Publications '2020 Best of the Net Anthology,’ is a 2018 recipient of the Academy of American Poets University Prize (“Momma's Boy,” poets.org), and won Miami University’s 2017 Jordan- Goodman Poetry Prize.  Milk & Cake Press published his first full-length collection, Bird Wild (2020).