November Flower*

The chrysanthemums you grow so lovingly in your garden
They bear no thorns

Every morn
they unabashedly open their faces to the sun
and offer their blooming beauty to the world
unafraid of the vulnerability of being plucked
and placed in ornamentation of somebody’s vase
or being the subject of attention of motley fauna

So also let go
and open up the corolla of your heart
Shed it of the ring of stakes, spines and spikes
the vault of barbed wire
you have enmeshed it with
Rid the hesitation, fear, apprehension, doubt
Let it blossom with spontaneity, love, hope, optimism
and offer it to the one
whose life it can adorn
What use is it shrivelling on the stem on which it is borne

It was you who told me
Chrysanthemums have no thorns

 

*Chrysanthemums are the flowers for the birth month of November (I did not know that till I started penning this on a prompt I picked up during a recent conversation, but it’s very apt that they are, in the context of this poem! )