Flowers

Flowers by Raymond A. Foss
.
Three flowers
bloom each day
.
Falsely fragile Queen Anne’s Lace
Clump of effervescent Daisies
A singular Black-eyed Susan
.
Wildflowers all
growing in the fields
of our hearts
.
Each her own
scent, shape, pose
Craning for light, food, attention
.
Willingly, lovingly tended
by the gardener,
the one who sowed the seed
.
April 8, 2005 10:35, edited 10:44
....................................................

Wallflower by Anne Sexton
.
Come friend,
I have an old story to tell you—
.
Listen.
Sit down beside me and listen.
My face is red with sorrow
and my breasts are made of straw.
I sit in the ladder-back chair
in a corner of the polished stage.
I have forgiven all the old actors for dying.
A new one comes on with the same lines,
like large white growths, in his mouth.
The dancers come on from the wings,
perfectly mated.
.
I look up. The ceiling is pearly.
My thighs press, knotting in their treasure.
Upstage the bride falls in satin to the floor.
Beside her the tall hero in a red wool robe
stirs the fire with his ivory cane.
The string quartet plays for itself,
gently, gently, sleeves and waxy bows.
The legs of the dancers leap and catch.
I myself have little stiff legs,
my back is as straight as a book
and how I came to this place—
the little feverish roses,
the islands of olives and radishes,
the blissful pastimes of the parlor—
I'll never know.
..........................
Moccasin Flowers by Mary Oliver
.
All my life,
so far,
I have loved
more than one thing,
.
including the mossy hooves
of dreams, including'
the spongy litter
under the tall trees.
.
In spring
the moccasin flowers
reach for the crackling
lick of the sun
.
and burn down. Sometimes,
in the shadows,
I see the hazy eyes,
the lamb-lips
.
of oblivion,
its deep drowse,
and I can imagine a new nothing
in the universe,
.
the matted leaves splitting
open, revealing
the black planks
of the stairs.
.
But all my life--sofar--
I have loved best
how the flowers rise
and open, how
.
the pink lungs of their bodies
enter the fore of the world
and stand there shining
and willing--the one
.
thing they can do before
they shuffle forward
into the floor of darkness, they
become the trees.
.