There is a Poem in a Sunflower

While traipsing on the dunes

by the beach, sea air leaving

salty kisses on my skin,

I saw a sunflower

growing straight out of the sand.

Intrigued that it could grow

in such seemingly adverse

conditions, I picked it

and brought it inside

to gift it with precious water

And the glass embrace of a vase.

But I laid it on the couch

and forgot about it

in the blur of my day

and it promptly

shriveled and died,

Its dehydrated corpse

Protectively curled in on itself

The first thing that I saw when

I opened my sleep-ridden eyes

And only then did my pupils bloom

In belated remembrance and regret.

And I know there is a poem in there somewhere

But for the life of me I can’t find it.