Spring comes earliest in flower-shops, Bringing windows riotous with bloom -- Pink and yellow, white and blue, blossoms calling you! And beyond the door you whiff the moist warm sweet odor Of Nature in her workshop. Will you have the purple violets With their heavy stifling fragrance, And the passion and perfection of their satin-sheen? They were meant to nestle close against the bosom Of a dream-rich woman whose soft firm fingers move among their petals, While her dark eyes brood above them, -- Warm and tender -- with memories of you! There is welcome in the fragrance of the roses. They were meant for glowing girlhood -- To match the color in her cheeks And the swinging rhythm of her step On tip-toe with excitement at the wonder of the world -- They will sway against a bosom -- where they wake no memories! And then there is the orchid -- fair exotic stranger. All contrary and wise, she holds herself aloof And waits the heavy-lidded woman with experience in her eyes -- What they have to tell each other you and I will never know! See the riot of the tulips -- Unfragrant, unmysterious, They grace the dinner table of a mother or a wife. Beyond the flashing tulips stand the yellow jonquils. Nothing else has ever caught so fearlessly the color of the sun. They always seem to whisper A merry little tune of happy days to come, So buy them for their glowing gold -- and forget them in an hour! But come into the flower-shop if only for a moment, And drink deep of all the colors of the spring! Open wide your nostrils And inhale the mellowed fragrance of a dozen different flowers mingling in the warm damp room. Just come into the flower-shop -- and laugh! -- For spring is here! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CAPPER KAPLINSKI AT THE NORTH SIDE CUE CLUB by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE IMPOSSIBLE INDISPENSIBILITY OF THE ARS POETICA by HAYDEN CARRUTH TO TIME by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ITALIAN PICTURES: THE COSTA SAN GIORGIO by MINA LOY SURFACES AND MASKS; 12 by CLARENCE MAJOR |