Don’t Bother the Flowers
When grandma told me
to stop buying her flowers
I didn’t know what to do
with the daffodils
I was holding in my hand.
Should I throw them
in the garbage disposal,
or put them in a vase?
I started worrying
about flowers withering,
stalks drooping, shriveled
leaves, and dried up petals
falling to their death.
Swiveling around the kitchen
in the lime green padded chair
I noticed the striped yellow wallpaper
matched the crocheted place mats,
the napkin holders, the quilted toaster cover.
I wasn’t supposed to touch anything—
her notepads, grocery lists, paper clipped
coupons,
the newspaper obituaries
of people she didn’t know
marked and highlighted
with a red felt tipped pen.
Sherri Levine is a poet and short fiction writer. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches English as a Second Language to adult immigrants and refugees at Portland Community College. Her work has been published in the Timberline Review, the Hartskill Review, VoiceCatcher, and Sun Magazine. Currently, she is the Poetry Editor of VoiceCatcher magazine. She escaped the long harsh winters of upstate New York and has ever since been happily soaking in the Oregon rain.