Ann Chinnis

Genus Narcissus

A Girl beats her breast purple
with longing. That’s how
I read it. No diagnosis. No
therapy. I love the normalcy
of it. The girl in the water
gets the Girl she wanted.
The Girl she wanted becomes
perennial. Daffodils sprout
white tepals around golden crowns
with passion as swift
as a splash in a pond. 

When I explain my cravings
this way, no one turns away.
No one mentions
a personality disorder. Don’t you
ever look in the mirror
and imagine kissing your lips? 

Have you never
leaned in until your nose, your eyes,
your chin blur,
nothing remaining but lips—
pink and puckered. Have you never
marveled at four lips coming
together, how cold and calm
the mirror’s surface? Have you
fallen in love with yourself?
And the gardener
weeds my bed of pleasure,
spading red canna’s, cattails,
purple water hyacinths
around the narcissus. He
smooths away my muddy
footprints, asking the water,
“If I love, can I be erased?”

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Ann Chinnis is the author of two poetry chapbooks: Poppet, My Poppet and I Can Catch Anything. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, 2025. Her work has been published in Sky Island Journal, River Heron Review, Gyroscope and Crab Creek Review, among others. She studies at the Writers Studio. Ann is a retired Emergency Physician and a leadership coach and lives with her wife in Virginia Beach, Virginia.