Flowers

Flowers

Flowers: those mythical creatures
Lurking all around us.
We cut them, and keep them;
Still they grow, wild.
If we halt our daily rush
To see them,
We speed up again, uneasy
With such extraordinary creatures.


More at home on an alien planet
Than here on Earth,
Strange creatures longing for a farscape
Of twin red moons,
And glassy desert sands.

Daisies and daffodils
Are only the apprentices
To the most exotic:

From deep in a volcanic rainforest,
Stunning bird of paradise.
Star-like Columbine.
Snapdragons,
Exquisitely formed Ladyslipper,
Dendrobium Orchids,
Epiphytic: perched on trees
Like birds.

Orange Amaryllis:
A tiger on a stem.

White Irises:
The Swan Queen
Of the flower kingdom.


And others unnamed,
One a hallucinogenic purple.
Some so tiny and
Exquisitely formed,
And so cool to the fingertips,
As to make you cry.
We strain not to damage the flower,
Fumbling and trembling.

We look for the Buddha
To slip the blossom
Into his hand.