During the war, women hid messages

   inside white flowers

tucked in their hair. They crossed

   enemy lines, slipped the blossoms

into soldiers’ fists. What might

   have been a child’s crown

for her communion, an offering

   at a grave, might win the war.

The ovule, the style, the stigma—

   what seemed to unfurl overnight

took weeks, even years.

   Dream your hand plucks the bloom,

its widest petals like porcelain,

   and a halo of bees skims your arms.

Upon waking, walk to the docks,

   the bloom heavy behind your ear,

and breathe in its sweet persistence,

   its scent of sea salt and gutted fish.

O! my heart now feels so cheerful as I go with footsteps light

      In the daily toil of my dear home; 

And I’ll tell to you the secret that now makes my life so bright—

      There’s a flower at my window in full bloom. 

It is radiant in the sunshine, and so cheerful after rain; 

        And it wafts upon the air its sweet perfume. 

It is very, very lovely! May its beauties never wane—

        This dear flower at my window in full bloom. 

Nature has so clothed it in such glorious array, 

      And it does so cheer our home, and hearts illume; 

Its dear mem’ry I will cherish though the flower fade away—

      This dear flower at my window in full bloom. 

Oft I gaze upon this flower with its blossoms pure and white. 

        And I think as I behold its gay costume, 

While through life we all are passing may our lives be always bright 

        Like this flower at my window in full bloom.

Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten,

   Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold,

Let it be forgotten for ever and ever,

   Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.

  

If anyone asks, say it was forgotten

   Long and long ago,

As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall

   In a long forgotten snow.

If you often find yourself at a loss for words

or don’t know what to say to those you love,

just extract poetry out of poverty, this dystopia

                            of civilization rendered fragrant,

             blossoming onto star-blue fields of loosestrife,

heady spools of spike lavender, of edible clover

                            beckoning to say without bruising

a jot of dog’s tooth violet, a nib of larkspur notes,

                        or the day’s perfumed reports of indigo

                                in the gloaming—

              what to say to those

                           whom you love in this world?

Use floriography, or as the flower-sellers put it,

Say it with flowers.

—Indigo, larkspur, star-blue, my dear.

‘Tis the last rose of Summer,

   Left blooming alone;

All her lovely companions

   Are faded and gone;

No flower of her kindred,

   No rose-bud is nigh,

To reflect back her blushes

   Or give sigh for sigh!

I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one,

   To pine on the stem;

Since the lovely are sleeping,

   Go sleep thou with them.

Thus kindly I scatter

   Thy leaves o’er the bed

Where thy mates of the garden

   Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow,

   When friendships decay,

And from Love’s shining circle

   The gems drop away!

When true hearts lie withered,

   And fond ones are flown,

Oh! who would inhabit

   This bleak world alone?