Cheryl's Pulse

Cheryl darted around me like a hummingbird
seeking sweet nectar from a sunburned body.

Sad to disappoint, my pheromones cast
an unpleasant gardener odor. Sweaty. Dirty.

Covered in fertilizer head to toe, I wavered
yet stood like a pillar of nourishment unbound.

My misleading appearance deserved far less
than received: undaunted, Cheryl fluttered

around me backwards, forwards (upside down
in my mind's eye), so I let her build imagination's nest

high upon my shoulders, feed on honeyed thoughts,
flick her tongue on crimson hands like a red cardinal flower.

I hung like a ring around Cheryl's neck—a cameo portrait
out of place in time, eternally etched by a summer breeze.

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A Washington-based author, poet, educator, and Push Cart Nominee, Sterling Warner's works have appeared in such literary magazines, journals, and anthologies as The Ekphrastic Review, Danse Macabre, Scarlet Leaf Review, The Vita Brevis Poetry Magazine, The Fib Review, and the Shot Glass Journal. Warner's volumes of poetry include Rags and Feathers, Without Wheels, ShadowCat, Edges, Memento Mori, Serpent's Tooth: Poems, and Flytraps (2022)—as well as Masques: Flash Fiction & Short Stories. Currently, Warner writes, turns wood, participates in "virtual" poetry readings, and enjoys life.