The Petals That Fall

We are taught that flowers bloom only for display,

but they grow wild and windblown,

in crags and cracks,

between slabs and in edges roughed by salt spray.

And so we must be wildflowers,

and do without gentle tending,

grow rough and ready,

with salt in the air-

all the better to lose petals to the wind and be bald before the ending,

than to wilt in carven crystal,

and sit pretty as the water sours -