The Amaranth

By Matthew Rohrer b. 1970 Matthew Rohrer

is an imaginary flower that never fades.

The amaranth is blue with black petals,

it’s yellow with red petals,

it’s enormous and grows into the shape

of a girl’s house,

the seeds nestle high in the closet

where she hid a boy.

The boy and his bike flee

the girl’s parents from the tip

of the leaves, green summer light

behind the veins.

The amaranth is an imaginary flower

in the shape of a girl’s house

dispensing gin and tonics

from its thorns, a succulent.

This makes the boy’s bike steer

off-course all summer, following

the girl in her marvelous car,

the drunken bike.

He was a small part of summer,

he was summer’s tongue.

Matthew Rohrer, “The Amaranth” from Satellite. Copyright © 2001 by Matthew Rohrer. Reprinted by permission of Wave Books.

Source: Satellite (Wave Books, 2001)

Biography

Matthew Rohrer was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and raised in Oklahoma. He earned his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His first collection, A Hummock in the Malookas (1995), was selected by Mary Oliver for the National Poetry Series. He is the author of Satellite (2001), A Green Light (2004), Rise Up (2007), They All Seemed Asleep (2008), and A Plate of Chicken (2009). Destroyer and Preserver (2011). He has . . .

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