Bite of Mordant

by Ann Chinnis

After Louise Glück’s “Wild Iris”

 

Although it was my mother’s
favorite flower, bursting

purple, I never was an iris.
My yard explodes with them,

short blooming period
from May to June.

I discharged
a young mother from the ER.

She returned the next day
and died. Brittled by failure,

I moved to an island. After a year,
like Glück’s wild iris, I made

a passage home from another world:
oblivion.

Unlike her iris, no great fountain,
no deep blue shadows. Lonely

rhizome. Papered skin. Hungry
for the water’s boil, the wringing, my

purple begged the pot for mordant’s
bite, repose of fiber.

 

 

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Ann Chinnis is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, 2025 and the author of three poetry books: Poppet, My Poppet, I Can Catch Anything, and Love Song: Port & Starboard. Her work has been published in Sky Island Journal, River Heron Review, Gyroscope, Crab Creek Review, among others. She is a retired Emergency Physician and a leadership coach and lives with her wife in Virginia Beach, Virginia. You can find her on Instagram @achinnis. Her website is annchinnispoet.com.