On Giving Flowers to Celebrate a Special Day
“{T]he daily, nonstop, global race to get just-cut roses from greenhouses
to your front door makes them punishing on the environment.”
—The Washington Post
Forgive me—I know you will, Dear—
For not giving roses this year.
The planet’s survival
Has trumped their arrival.
The high cost of getting them here
Persuaded my heart and my head.
It’s hard when old habits are shed.
But Nature needs wooing
Or faces undoing.
So here are some dahlias instead.
Dirty Laundry
There was a whiff of Scandal.
Still, Probity was sure
he’d have the wit to handle
that odor. They’d ignore
All hints that he was tainted.
Not Probity, they’d think.
But then, he nearly fainted
when it became a stink!
On Call
A doctor’s job’s to be on call.
A poet, with no job at all,
may feel, and rightly feel, that rhyme
may summon him at any time.