Yellow Violet

Viola pubescens

Long after the yellow funfair tent with its sudden shower of pollen & its sweet prize has been packed away, after the bees have gone in search of other diversions & the forest has grown dark & thick, the violet hosts a quieter, stranger sideshow: the cleistogamous flower, a tent that never opens & admits nobody. Like a Wall Street investment firm writing I.O.U.s to itself, it has all the magic it needs within its green inviolate room. We may infer the success of its transactions only from its conversion into a new instrument, with contents set for future release— a hedge against all the vagaries of spring & commerce.