"Flirtation" by Rita Dove

FLIRTATION

After all, there’s no need

to say anything

at first. An orange, peeled

and quartered, flares

like a tulip on a wedgwood plate.

Anything can happen.

Outside the sun

has rolled up her rugs

and night strewn salt

across the sky. My heart

is humming a tune

I haven’t heard in years!

Quiet’s cool flesh—

let’s sniff and eat it.

There are ways

to make of the moment

a topiary

so the pleasure’s in

walking through.

Source of the text – Rita Dove, Museum.  Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon Press, 1992, p. 70.

TJB: With short-lined, simple-elegant images alive to sensual detail—viewing sculpted shrubs!—the poem captures the thrill of being flirted with.