Blanket Flower

Here it is in a bucket:

Blanket flower.

This is Connecticut,

And this is a cold and wet

Memorial Day.

This is wrong.

This flower does not belong here

Or in a bucket.

This is cultural appropriation at its worst:

Here in this rainforest

Is a plant from a warm and dry world

Whose reach might go for miles

Along dunes, across dunes, all over empty lots--

All sunshine, blue sky, and endless heat:

This is what it means to blanket.

But it is stuck in a bucket.

Look at these flowers:

These are faces that never go indoors.

They drink the sun and the heat

And turn it into color.

Defenseless, exposed,

Easily stepped upon,

They nevertheless stitch together

The grains of sand that define

The limits of the walkable earth.

Go beyond these flowers,

And you better know how to swim.

Only you can save yourself in that place

If you feel inclined

To claim the water

The way the flower claims the sand.