Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Foundation
Presents the 2008 Indiana Senior Poet Laureate


Alice B. Couch

VICTORIAN BRIDE

Embarrassment is like
a ruby throated hummingbird
flying to my loved one's cheeks
at my suggestion.

Her lips,
the pulse
of a butterfly's wings,
opening and closing.

She touches her lower
with her front teeth,
flakes of powder dry lipstick
fall like scales from the butterfly's wing.

She releases her breath
with my answer.
My clothes molt off
like snakeskin.

I assure her my only desire
is to perpetuate our species.

Alice B. Couch
Noblesville, Indiana
ALICE B. COUCH, 81, Noblesville, Indiana, is a retired nurse's aide who loves to garden, read mysteries, paint and play organ at her church. One of her three dogs is named Robert Burns. Alice and daughter Mary, also a poet and Honor Scroll winner, co-authored “Two Views.” Her sign is Virgo.