Give me the sunburned flower,
not the unwrinkled beauty.
Let reality wash the color
from roses so I can cradle
them like seeds in their infancy.
Give beauty no eyes but feeling
caught in the silence of life.
And I will let their bloodless petals fly
from my palms as the wind takes them
back to earth.
Poem by Luke Levi
Luke Levi’s poems can be found in Humana Obscura, Presence, Haiku Commentary, Akitsu Quarterly, Narrative Northeast, and elsewhere. He lives in the Texas Hill Country, and his recent poetry book is So Fragile Are the Beautiful Things.