[The magnolias are about to bloom]

The magnolias are about to bloom
I don’t like them tight claws
coming out of leaves that propel them
I don’t dare call them dandelion
for fear they might break apart
come through a screen door
I long to see them less irritated with blooming
long to see
the white irrigated petals
untuck their folded arms
long to smell their brazen pollen
irresistible powdered petals

that know in beauty

they’re up against nothing.

PJ Holliday is a literary writer based out of Houston, TX. She graduated from the University of Houston in 2016 with a degree in poetry where her honors thesis won “Outstanding Honors Thesis Award” for 2014. She earned her MFA in creative writing at Regis University in January 2019. She is a contributing blog writer for the literary journal Inverted Syntax and her poetry manuscript, “To Clear a Static Field” is currently in submission.