Mourning Skies

Flowers

As a gift
My mother received
A pot of flowers
That were yet to sprout
Lying under soil
A few inches deep

She tended to the plant
Placing the pot in the window sill
Allowing light to shine
Down on the seedlings
She watered it daily
Squealing with excitement
When the first signs of life
Sprouted from the dirt
In fresh, crisp leaves

As the months passed
And spring warm escalated
To being the flowers summer
The sprouts bursted from the soul
Stretching their spines tall
Reaching towards
The refreshing light
That delivered their life

The quenching supplies of water
From the hand of my mother
Began to sliver to mere rations
As the first signs of fall
Rolled in on cool breezes
Tainted with dyes of fire
Blistering the leaves of the trees

At their peak of growth
The flowers sprouted
Stretching their dark petals
Out towards the light remaining

My mother now looked upon the petals
So lacking of color
And those who bore it
Only sustaining deep blues and purples
As if they had been beaten
But this was their true beauty
Though dark
They were just

But my mother still viewed the dark petals
Through the eyes of others
They clouded her eyes
To see the flowers
Through a translucent curtain
Woven in pity
For vibrant colors
Could never become
From these plants

The supply of water
Stalled to drops
Of precipitation
Forming on the window

It was the darkest winter
I could remember
I watched the flowers wither and rot
And I watched my mother pull out
A pair of scissors
To slice the dead buds
Off of their stems

I had developed a strong liking
Towards the flowers
And watered them through out the winter
Despite the sad smiles I received
When my mother caught me

And so I kept them alive
Or barely sustaining life
Just enough
To keep the stems from snapping in two
From their own weight

After an eternity
Of seemingly sempiternal darkness
The sun reached
It's long fingers through the murky clouds
That had starved and deprived the land
Of life
To lift the petals towards the sky
Reach into the ground
And relinquish it's energy

Now I keep the plant
In hopes that one day
I may not be the only one
To find beauty in the dark petals
I even found my mother's smile
Pulling at her mouth
As she saw the deep colors
But when I caught her
She denied it
And denies it still
But I know the day will come
When she shows her love
To them as well
And I wait for that day

-

This is most likely the longest poem I've written so stay tuned