Glacier Lily

You are a glacier lily
a poet friend once said to me
at a drinking party.

You are a poet
a woman like a glacier lily
existing solely
in the ice-covered mountaintop
lonely
pure and colorless.

Poetry of frustration
you write in such simplicity
in such purity
revealing yourself
as a virgin.

My friend, he said to me
such is not necessarily a virtue
in this world.  How to color
yourself as you age alone
is the life-long task.
You need to add colors in you.
Let’s drink to that.

I smiled and lifted my glass
to his face and said
It takes one to know