Tulips
(3/22/2021 Boulder, Colorado)
I. My spring flowers
this year
Are for a grave
not a grave
A fence surrounding
a grocery store
Not a grocery store
a crime scene
Not a crime scene
ten crime scenes
A rapid-fire
of crime scenes
In the check-out line
not a line
A scream
a twisting fall
II. They are tulips
young and red
And everyone I try to
talk to talks about
Guns and angry men
and the dust is still
In the air
like ash from
A volcano
and they want to cast
Laws and I do too but
but today’s tears
Will become their own bullets
by tomorrow
If I don’t open
my own lips
And wail
III. They are red
and young
And I’m planning to hang them
as if they’ve done something
Wrong - leave them to
shrivel on a cyclone
Fence as though these deaths
will be a little less painful
As we watch something
else die - already
Cut from their source
I wrap their green
open stems in
Paper towel and water and plastic
thank them
Plead with them
to be brave
To hold strong
They have a lot of
work to do
————————————————————
(Colorado Author’s League Winner 2022)
