Birthday Flowers

The gesture was too big.
A card and a few kind
Words would have sufficed.
Or a second hand book
So, I put them outside
In the spring afternoon.
And they lie there,
Unreachable.

A single rose
Entreats for help,
Wanting to live.
Not understanding the cut.
I take it out,
Vase and water it.
It has a few days
At the most.

The alstroemeria
Look relieved,
In their plastic
Wrapping.
Joyful in the temporary.
Impatient and fatuous
In their blankness.
At once smothering
And transient.