Only Red Roses
He sent a dozen red roses to his papa's coffin
A papa who had whipped him black and blue
and sent him away to make life on his own
He still looked like the hippie he had been then
now, he was older and thinner, gone bald, sad
clothes from the seventies hung on his frame
He didn't seem to notice his flowers were alone
nobody else had felt drawn to let the weary man
go with sweet memories surrounding him
He had not nourished them when he was alive
the memories lay tarnished somewhere in minds
brought forth in conversations for years to come
Eyes were sad for the loss of the man he had been
those who could remember how he had been once
choked on unshed tears, hoping not to follow him
We are what we were and what we become and are
it is not how long we live, but the way we live our life
that makes flowers grow upon our coffin at burial.
Sylvia Sammons Spivey
10-2009







