what did flowers do
before there were no more flowers
did flowers explode
did flowers preen
what have flowers done
and what will flowers do
when flowers return
at your behest
watch the flowers
begging for an opportunity
to avoid the stigma
of being a messy flower
the lines are not yet flowers
the lines are striving to become flowers
they’re growing toward a state
they’ve speculated about
don’t deny flowers their hour of fun
we’re walking to the sex pad slowly
along the road
along the train tracks
hoping to arrive
at a nonperforated state
we’re playing doubles on the boat landing
we’re getting tickled by happenstance
his fingernails scratching our naked back
his palpations singling us out
driving along the highway
holding her hand in the car
her name was either Petunia or Fred
and we found Fred or Petunia
to be a catalyst of what the pundits called “fun”
because Petunia or Fred forgave the perforations and the irregularities
the bursts of accidental happiness
bit by bit the dots became your mother
or his mother
maybe Petunia’s mother
Petunia’s mother and Fred’s mother
butted heads at the cake sale
searching for the correct frosting
the unearthly frosting
alongside the train tracks
his hands rubbing my back
in a decentered fashion
corrugating me
I didn’t think I could become more corrugated
than the flowers had already posited me as being
the newspapers said that the flowers did something
but I don’t know what the flowers did
that’s why I’m asking you
what did flowers do
in the days when there were flowers
before we destroyed the possibility of flowers
ask Petunia
ask Fred
how it happened
that the flowers lost their autonomy
and explain why the strange man is walking
from stage right to stage left
across the eviscerated field
now floral again
finally for one moment floral
despite your casual, flawed interventions
crosscut this episode with the story
of a floral future that might still happen
and give me back the optimistic
perforations and scratches
give me back the train tracks and the stigma