Giles Watson's poetry and prose
Musk Mallows
MUSK MALLOW
Hoverflies twirl stamens in supplicant hands
With intense concentration, like children
Sifting flour for baking scones,
The whisking anthers a thousand times
Reflected in bubblebath eyes.
The musk-smell rises, like butterflies
On an updraft. The flower beneath:
A vellum scroll.
The hoverflies return
To find anthers withered, and in their place
Are feathered stigmas, awaiting
Some sacrament. The flowers
Are in facets, a thousand to each eye.
Unfurled: the bloom beneath.
Children
Find the cheeses ready-plated,
Bundled, babybelled, for waiting mouths,
Tight cakes of mucilage
Ripe for tasting. The hoverflies’
Eyes - and their thousand tiny worlds –
Extinguished, and every petal
Wilted.
Source material: G. Clarke Nuttall and H. Essenhigh Corke, Wild Flowers as they Grow, Volume 1, 1912, pp. 62-64. There are three main stages to the life cycle of a musk-mallow flower. In the first, a pyramidal arrangement of stamens arises on a central column, as soon as the flower has opened itself by unrolling after the manner of a scroll. In the second, the anthers fall away to allow insects to perch on the stigmas, transferring pollen from their legs as they do so. After this, the flower withers, and the fruits are bundled on top of the calyx just as though they are being presented on a dinner plate. They are indeed edible, and particularly delectable to country children, who have called them “cheeses” for generations. The detail of the hoverfly rubbing the stamens together in a twirling fashion with its forelegs in order to extract the pollen for eating is based on personal observation. Poem by Giles Watson, 2009.
Musk Mallows
MUSK MALLOW
Hoverflies twirl stamens in supplicant hands
With intense concentration, like children
Sifting flour for baking scones,
The whisking anthers a thousand times
Reflected in bubblebath eyes.
The musk-smell rises, like butterflies
On an updraft. The flower beneath:
A vellum scroll.
The hoverflies return
To find anthers withered, and in their place
Are feathered stigmas, awaiting
Some sacrament. The flowers
Are in facets, a thousand to each eye.
Unfurled: the bloom beneath.
Children
Find the cheeses ready-plated,
Bundled, babybelled, for waiting mouths,
Tight cakes of mucilage
Ripe for tasting. The hoverflies’
Eyes - and their thousand tiny worlds –
Extinguished, and every petal
Wilted.
Source material: G. Clarke Nuttall and H. Essenhigh Corke, Wild Flowers as they Grow, Volume 1, 1912, pp. 62-64. There are three main stages to the life cycle of a musk-mallow flower. In the first, a pyramidal arrangement of stamens arises on a central column, as soon as the flower has opened itself by unrolling after the manner of a scroll. In the second, the anthers fall away to allow insects to perch on the stigmas, transferring pollen from their legs as they do so. After this, the flower withers, and the fruits are bundled on top of the calyx just as though they are being presented on a dinner plate. They are indeed edible, and particularly delectable to country children, who have called them “cheeses” for generations. The detail of the hoverfly rubbing the stamens together in a twirling fashion with its forelegs in order to extract the pollen for eating is based on personal observation. Poem by Giles Watson, 2009.