Sample 19

Author: Nola Published: over 7 years ago
Tags: poetry, hope Category: Poetry

Petals

Bruised petals
cannot bear their scars
for long.
Curling into a shroud,
they brace themselves
for the return journey
to ashes,
to dust.

Yet in the crushing,
a fragrance
is released,
sweeter than a perfect bloom,
richer than the life before.

I gather fragments,
inhale their breath.

(This poem appears in the book Veils, Halos and Shackles edited by Charles Adès Fishman and Smita Sahay, published by Kasva Press, 2016.)