Pastel Death
The petals, lavender and pink and white,
Have fallen, fallen on each other, by
Each other, making little heaps here slight
And heaps there slighter, as they fell to die
Beneath the living bushes and the flowers
Alive above these ones. Containing doom,
Though, they know more about the powers
Of time and death of fragmentary bloom
And bloom since each of them can never know
Another truth now. Lavender and pink
And white were chosen by a man to show
His favorite hues upon life’s blossoming brink.
When choosing them he did not choose them for
Their deaths upon the garden lawn’s décor.
~ Phillip Whidden