Flowers Recite Riddles

Flowers Recite Riddles
© Surazeus
2023 02 22

Flowers recite riddles of lonely wind 
to moon-eyed fish at bottom of the pond 
who give pens to gods so they can compose 
fragments of the staircase as sweet surprise, 
though letters of the alphabet compete 
with roses blooming in soft silver snow. 

Flowers wait in bored rain for the white snake 
to prove her theory about the fishhook 
because time reveals sweet sorrow we steal 
despite her decision to play the role 
no one understands till the paraclete 
advocates for the perfect midnight show. 

Flowers consume fake gates of paradise 
to examine why thunder forms the base 
of empty nests woven from photographs 
scattered by bomb blasts when the devil laughs 
as if we need hunger to calculate 
vague outlines of our new global world view. 

Flowers seek revenge on the parking lots 
within parameters set by blind fates 
who refuse to apologize at dawn 
for the sun that disappears in the rune 
which spells mountain path we must navigate 
when searching for taut angle of the yew. 

Flowers leap deep unbridgeable abyss 
in time for ghosts to attend midnight mass 
as if the future at train stations waits 
for children without hope to lose their coats, 
so we decide to journey in the boat 
to find the Glow Cloud in the empty sky. 

Flowers fuel life in vast city maze 
since death tricks us with the afterlife ruse 
to relax in glum shade of the plum tree, 
resigned to believe tall tales of the crow 
because we worship the arrogant goat 
which kills anyone who dares question why. 

Flowers curl roots into sponge of my brain 
light as honey in hands of the kind crone 
who makes the sunset vanish without hope 
in temple paved with skulls of the mindscape 
too simple for how Sorrow plays the flute 
in strict tradition of the modern way. 

Flowers walk to end of the homeless street 
where old museums live inside my heart 
more generous than angels working in banks 
who pretend they do not obey the Sphinx, 
lost in oblivion through the desert route 
where the wealthy enjoy my shadow play.