Flash Poetry: The Sunflower by Cathy MacKenzie

Welcome to the Spot Writers. The prompt for this month is “spring flowers.” This poem comes from Cathy MacKenzie (an old poem from her “archives” since she forgot about writing something new for today). Check out her website at the bottom of the post.

***

The Sunflower

The fragile crayon picked, a soft pastel,
Out of the waiting tray of rainbow shades,
Brushed onto the outline a sunshine belle,
With grace and form, subtle beauty cascades.

The loving smoothness massaged in the light,
Gives birth to a once-pale flower,
Blossoming into a beaming yellow bright,
Its hidden root grasping so much power.

How stunning, she says to the mirror,
Its sturdy stalk rising high to the sun,
The seeds she’ll scatter, growing dearer,
Buds bursting forth, living has begun.

Later…

She snatches the fragment, the broken end,
Posing naked beside her in the looming tray,
The pastel crayon, stiff, unable to bend,
Breaks easily, shades of betraying grey.

The scratching of the jaundiced piece
Scrapes across the outline as she mourns,
Covering the smudged paper, hiding a crease,
While a brighter one laughs and scorns.

The sickly pallor on the leaves do wave,
Colouring the roughness, the grain peeking,
Applied like a shovel attacking a grave,
The wilted sunflower leering and weeping.

***

The Spot Writers–our members:

 RC Bonitz: rcbonitz.com

Val Muller: https://valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Tom Robson: https://robsonswritings.wordpress.com/