Suzanne Ondrus

 

 

Buying and Selling Love

In response to Joyce Morrow Jones’ “Willow”

 

I sell flowers from dawn till dusk.

Funerals - the customers quietly point, pay, and leave.

Single women - they sigh with imagination and spend

for hope.

Unfaithful husbands - push their lips tight and curl a smile

while taking the biggest bouquet or

they rush to me,

looking at their watches as if burned

and pick out whatever’s in red,

as if to say “It’s always you.”

My favorite are those coming to me with their love

at their side,

-- urging for them to choose

that which will make them smile the widest. Those are my favorites.

 

 

 

A. C. Grayling

Rebecca Priestley 

David Toomey