Natural Question

"Natural Question" is the fourth song of Paul Salerni's Flora, which sets five poems of John Updike.

Date: 2003Composer: Paul SalerniText: John UpdikeSong Collection: Flora

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Natural Question
by John Updike

What rich joke does
the comically spherical peony bud–
like the big button on a gong striker–
hold, that black ants
crawl all over its tie-dyed tightness,
as if to tickle it forth?

–John Updike: Collected Poems 1953-1993, pp. 180-181

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