suppose my tongue caught that mystery

2. How I Became a Nature Lover

Suppose I said, "Honeysuckle,"
meaning stickysweet stamen,
the hidden core you taught me,
a city girl, to find. How I crave
the moment I coax it from calyx,
tongue under bulbed tip
of glistening stalk, like an altar boy
raising the salver under the blessed bread
the long Sundays of my girlhood,
suppose my tongue caught that mystery,
that   single   swollen   drop

O

honey-

suckle

The irony of metaphor:
you are closest to something
when naming what it's not.

[Beth Ann Fennelly, from 'The Impossibility of Language', in Open House]