wrapped in faded folded
wax paper and discovered
in the top drawer
of her mother’s armoire,
she became that five-year-old girl
first plucking them from the grass
then running into the kitchen
look what I picked for you.
Into a Flintstone jelly glass
they would go,
but they never lasted long.
They never rivaled
the large sunflowers
that graced the dining table.
She thought her mother’s smile
obligatory, unimpressed.
But she found this pressed dead
dandelion, after all these years,
and then recalled
how they would pick the weed
when it was a fuzzy white ball,
lean in together, head-to-head,
and make a silent wish,
don’t tell-just blow.
Julie Standig
A lifetime New Yorker, Julie Standig now writes with two amazing Bucks County poetry groups. She has been published in Alehouse Press, Sadie Girl Press, After Happy Hour Review, Schuylkill Journal Review, US1 Poets/Del Val, Gyroscope Review as well as online journals. Her first chapbook, Memsahib Memoir was released by Plan B Press in 2017 and her full volume collection, The Forsaken Little Black Book, was recently published by Kelsay Books. She lives in Doylestown, Pa with her husband and their springer spaniel.