Description Queen Anne?s Lace
The weft and weave of leaf and shade
is a brocade pillow, the lace spun
out of air and sunlight, with unseen
bobbins. The May Queen must be
their maker, twisting each flower
into a lopsided perfection
of five petals, with patience
infinite, repeating her making
till the guipure of each umbel
webs the world in gossamer,
and she turns, hands dew-moist,
the sex-smell upon them,
to unfurl Thorn blossom
into an openwork of May.
Poem by Giles Watson, 2011. Queen Anne?s Lace ? a name which is probably of North American origin ? is more prosaically known in this country as cow parsley, and is the ubiquitous umbel flower of late spring and early summer. It often covers uncultivated areas in waist-high swathes of blossom, each petal not much bigger than the head of a pin. Like the hawthorn, or Mayflower, it contains trimethylamine, which makes the flowers smell faintly of sex.
