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Eulogy to an Autumn Daisy

Ashley Chang

flower, you did not

deserve to die like this,

wilted in the bottom of my trashcan

after a day gracing the vase in my kitchen.

no, you should have lived, lived outside

and grown wild under the endless sky

and at last, relinquished your petals, one by one,

to the cold freedom of the autumn wind,

instead of losing them to my kitchen floor

swept away by a dustpan and a broom.

for a short while you were a small sun,

bravely bright—

what courage it must have taken to smile,

away from the lifeblood of the blue rain, in that prison of a

crystal cylinder filled with tepid tap water!

the tragedy of your wilted neck

spiritlessly limp, unwilling to live

but oh little thing, forgive me

for wanting a flower

and not being an earth