Orchid Bloom

 (Chong Khae, Thailand)
Suspended from the eave,
the orchid lives like a hermit crab
in a hollowed out coconut shell.
It sends its clean-as-a-flagpole
stem skyward until the arc of gravity
bends it back down toward the heavy
bloom that drips with electric red
amid blown apart pastels as breathtaking
as the nebula that hangs on Orion’s belt
a million billion miles away.
9/23/10 FG