Checker Lily

[summer_jackel]

In April, I was walking in the woods, and met
a wildflower I had never seen before.
The tiny, subtle lilies enchanted me, nodding
modestly on their long stalks, yellowy-green
spotted with startling, deep magenta.
Tiny insects rested inside each odd, compelling flower,
drunk on early nectar, lace-winged with sweeping,
delicate legs. I marveled at the beauty of pollination.

Several minutes later, I was still wondering,
but didn't that insect look familiar?
Hadn't I seen it somewhere before?
In a perfect moment of comic timing,
my arm just then began to itch.
I had never heard of mosquitoes pollinating anything,
and it took awhile to recognize
an old companion met in strange context.