The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
The Language of Flowers
by Angela Yuriko Smith
This color suits you.
Purple, color of mourning
I will plant lilac
.
to disguise the smells
of your transition from life
to post consumer.
.
Salvia, I plant
though it can’t help you much now…
your longevity
.
being what it is:
done. The language of flowers
a cacophony
.
of conversation
where color and scent create
all the nuances.
.
Dandelion last—
it is the final flower.
The golden blossoms
.
are coins for passage
upon the silent ferry.
The root drills straight down
.
to the underworld.
The autumn leaves are bitter
like winter, like loss.
.
They make no judgement
and treat all the graves the same.
When I see the seeds
.
dancing in the Spring
I will be thinking of you
and planting new things.
.
Fiction © Copyright Angela Yuriko Smith
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.
More from Angela Yuriko Smith:
Angela Yuriko Smith is an American poet, author and co-publisher of Space and Time magazine, a publication that has been printing speculative fiction, art and poetry since 1966. Together we build a poem as a community each month. Visit “Exquisite Corpse” at SpaceandTime.net to submit.
Spreading the Writer's Word 
A time for planting and you’ve planted a great little poem, here, Angela!
This poem speaks to me – I am fascianted by flowers and the mythology around them. The imagery of the dandelion was particularly apt – so beautiful.