The Mandevilla Declines

A poem.

Pink petals
peeking through the overgrowth of shrub –
O'Keeffe's brushstrokes.
Tightly folded racemes
like summer dresses,
left closeted, unworn.
Woody trailing vines
demur from embracing the trellis,
inflorescence un-displayed.
The Mandevilla declined
to dip her roots into the water basin,
to blow her trumpets.
Foolish annual
saving her bloom
for some special occasion.

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