Drop your mask
and let me watch you
unfold
like the tongue
of a butterfly.

Probe my pistils
and my stamen.

I am
the rarest flower,
the chocolate orchid;

Inhale my fragrance.
Imbibe my sweetness.

Must you fly?
Don’t.
Not yet.

Copyright 2016 Maria Thompson Corley

Maria Thompson Corley is a Canadian pianist (MM, DMA, The Juilliard School) of Jamaican and Bermudian descent, with experience as a college professor, private piano instructor, composer, arranger and voice actor. She has contributed to Broad Street Review since 2008, and also blogs for Huffington Post.

Her first novel, Choices, was published by Kensington. This is the third poem she has written since she won a regional competition in third grade.