OTTAVA RIMA
Marigold Flowers Glow in the Ferny Green
The Lark’s poetry competition — third place winner
Published in
2 min readAug 8, 2022
I started gardening when I was young
while holding handfuls of these precious seeds.
These little half white half black sticks far-flung
all over garden loam just scratched of weeds.
Remember picking flowers dried among
bright orange blooms still bright. Our seed proceeds
bunched in their rustling ruffled dry tan skirt.
I put some in the pocket of my shirt.
Tagetes’ simple orange daisies glow.
Bright orange petals range from dark to light.
With some more yellow on the spectrum though.
These marigolds’ bright colors out of sight.
My hands have aged these fifty years or so
since those first seeds though memories are bright.
Red fades to yellow petals. Green turns black.
Their fresh scent never fails to bring me back.
