Iris
From red throats emerge
Purple satin petals veined
Like embroidery
Come away with the raggle taggle gypsy-o
genetic footprints
lines of women walked before me
ever increasing one 2
four eight sixteen
don’t draw breath thirty 2
sixty four do the math
seven generations trace back
race back to century 18
spring seven lines ahead
bounce my genes to century 22
I only track back 2
and project two forward
will I hold three planet walkers?
or will that privilege be lost
as one back is lost to me?