daisies, Poetry by Jesús B Otxoa

Genre: Death

daisies
by Jesús B Otxoa

para cristina † 1953

were i to briefly peer into the distant past, say, into those
long ago and vanished years, i’d mind the purple larkspur
standing sentinel over the creeping pink verbena lovely
in my mind’s eye only to be taken to the moment, yesterday?
where i’d be cradling in hand and arm a loaded
m1 carbine and standing at the ready
on the destroyer escort’s ladder staring hard at the swells
among which sailors swam, safe in their belief and faith
that sharks would not intrude. now, as memory recedes

i mind that yes, i have grown some lovely flowers
in my time, blood red roses and feral bougainvillea,
bachelors’ buttons, vexing sweet peas, nasturtiums,
daffodils and all the rest, fragrant jewels from the breast
of mother earth but it has been the daisies
we have ever tasked to tie it…