Giles Watson's poetry and prose
Queen Anne's Lace
Queen Anne’s Lace
The weft and weave of leaf and shade
is a brocade pillow, the lace spun
out of air and sunlight, with unseen
bobbins. The May Queen must be
their maker, twisting each flower
into a lopsided perfection
of five petals, with patience
infinite, repeating her making
till the guipure of each umbel
webs the world in gossamer,
and she turns, hands dew-moist,
the sex-smell upon them,
to unfurl Thorn blossom
into an openwork of May.
Poem by Giles Watson, 2011. Queen Anne’s Lace – a name which is probably of North American origin – is more prosaically known in this country as cow parsley, and is the ubiquitous umbel flower of late spring and early summer. It often covers uncultivated areas in waist-high swathes of blossom, each petal not much bigger than the head of a pin. Like the hawthorn, or Mayflower, it contains trimethylamine, which makes the flowers smell faintly of sex.
Queen Anne's Lace
Queen Anne’s Lace
The weft and weave of leaf and shade
is a brocade pillow, the lace spun
out of air and sunlight, with unseen
bobbins. The May Queen must be
their maker, twisting each flower
into a lopsided perfection
of five petals, with patience
infinite, repeating her making
till the guipure of each umbel
webs the world in gossamer,
and she turns, hands dew-moist,
the sex-smell upon them,
to unfurl Thorn blossom
into an openwork of May.
Poem by Giles Watson, 2011. Queen Anne’s Lace – a name which is probably of North American origin – is more prosaically known in this country as cow parsley, and is the ubiquitous umbel flower of late spring and early summer. It often covers uncultivated areas in waist-high swathes of blossom, each petal not much bigger than the head of a pin. Like the hawthorn, or Mayflower, it contains trimethylamine, which makes the flowers smell faintly of sex.