First Steps #WATTYS2016

Flowers

Back when I was in school,
I'd grow flowers to place in your hair.
I'd buy the seeds in upbeat markets,
Water them every time the soil looked a little dry
And I'd wait until the shoots appeared.
Take it from me,
Those shoots appearing would make my day, my week,
I'd spend all afternoon thinking about the budding lives of the plants,
Climbing the air towards the sky.

I'd check on the shoots in the morning,
Seeing growth even if there was none,
The green ladders extending a warm greeting.
The wind would brush them side to side,
The blue sky showing no cracks.
The soil would look a little dry,
So I'd give it some water and go on with my day.

Sometimes I'd damn near wake them up,
Checking on them with a torch in the middle of the night,
Just to make sure they were okay -
The night can be tough for the little shoots.
The result was always worth it,
Flowers of colours unseen,
Gently nestled on your head,
Drawing compliments,
Drawing breaths,
The flowers were beautiful, to say the least.

I think the day I decided to stop growing flowers was the day I didn't water the soil or check on the shoots.
I'm not going to give myself excuses,
It happened
And the flowers died.
I didn't stop immediately,
I planted new seeds the day after,
Found them a week later with shoots pointing towards the sky,
But it didn't matter how much water I gave them,
The soil was always too dry,
The flowers died.

People ask how they are
And I tell them they're fine,
But in reality it's an empty plant pot,
Stashed behind the trees.
I haven't given up,
I still plant seeds in the dry soil every month,
Waiting for the colder months to allow for rain,
So that the seeds can grow,
Because that's the way it works isn't it?
If we leave things long enough,
They get better on their own,
Don't they?

Maybe I'm refusing to accept the fact that leaving things only causes them to grow,
Until they tower overhead,
Still reaching for the sky,
Never to arrive there.
I planted some new seeds this morning,
The sun baking them in the dry soil.
Why should I not water them?
I'm lying to myself -
To not water the seeds is to allow them to die,
I'm giving up on them before they have a chance to grow,
So I watered them.
It'll be a week or two before I see if they've survived,
But if they haven't,
I'll plant some more and water them every morning.

Back when I was in school,
I learned that flowers grow for more than just the sake of growing,
That they reach into the blue,
Escaping the soil from which they're cast,
So that I can place them on you
And forget to water the past.