Acts of Deception by Lenka Medlik

I know a bank where wild orchids grow

sheltered from salt winds that blow

blistering and harsh, scouring the marsh:

where Butterfly, Bee and Pyramidals pose

on a stage clad in flamboyant clothes-

flowers and leaves; a pageant that deceives

those who would woo them

and those who would destroy

and crack their cryptic mimicry. 

Others send out perfumes,

Green Leaf Volatiles

filched from rivals’ boudoirs

which, like Titania’s tincture,

create new objects of desire;

and so the Mining Bee snares

itself in Spider Orchids’ lairs;

nor are there any spiders’ homes

in flower-webs of trichomes. 

Ah what a tangled web they weave

more credible than our conspiracies

of climate change denying stories;

yet this is no play or make-believe:

their lives, so also ours, rely

upon their talent to deceive.