When Flowers Die
When flowers die,
they die slowly-
edge by edge
the petals curl,
still, silently,
without complaint....
Unlike us,
cut flowers
should be let go before
the first tinge of death
while they are yet
radiant in deepest color.
We humans, however,
must stay alive long,
long past our first bloom--
till we have crinkled and
brutishly browned from
the excesses of time.
Yet we have
what flowers have not:
our love for them
dies with them
while our love
for our beloved blooms
ever more resplendent
with the long years,
lasting past the fading,
lasting past even death itself....
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