Sunflowers
I can’t stand to see them droop
Faces hung like lamps bent over
Their lights are out
Their shame is as drastic
as their joy was in August
They burn at both ends
Like high summer models in Van Gogh poses
Did their beauty go to their heads
or do they bow in humble gestures?
But I can only see what their faces mirror
fears in me, bent over crones with osteoporosis
pecked out eyes, lost teeth
Did they stand too tall
too long without cover?
I don’t grow sunflowers
They’re too dramatic
They’re easy targets
of nature’s wrath
They hang like skulls
in suicide nooses
in garden graveyards
for Halloween
Or stand like crosses
of martyred saviors
with their seed spilled
like blood
Their thorny crowns
have fallen down
Their bones loom long
As days close in
like lowered coffins
and light abandons me
Winter comes
as a Rumplestilskin
to steal my first born golden son
Faded hope is money spent
Now we are poor with no mothers
Now we are old with only mortal gods
and rent to pay for all we have loved
Ashes to ashes
We knew this would happen
But we never want it to be now
I keep the memory of sunflowers
on refrigerator magnets
next to bright shiny photographs
from when my children were young
__________Colleen Redman, written around 2000
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October 1st, 2016 1:16 am
Oh my gosh — I’ve always liked sunflowers in all their stages . I used to enjoy watching birds eat the seeds after they bent over. Jeez — I guess I have no soul. Or else it is a good thing I like things that are old and faded and bent over , now that I am one.
October 1st, 2016 9:35 am
Well this is one way to see them. It’s how I felt at the time I wrote this poem (they brought out the darkness related to loss and impermanence) but since have grown sunflowers a couple of times. I like to feed the seeds to my chickens.
October 2nd, 2016 12:21 pm
I have never thought of sunflowers this way, but you are right… their decay is one of the most drastic, from cheerfulness to mourning in an instant… the last stanza made my heart tie up.
October 2nd, 2016 12:28 pm
WOW! You have put in words what I feel but never could have said this well…..especially the rent we pay for all we have loved, and the bent crone with missing teeth. Ouch, this sunflower is my self portrait. LOL. I love it.
October 2nd, 2016 12:54 pm
My goodness, the emotions here are so vivid and so palpable.
October 2nd, 2016 2:43 pm
There is a sadness in the cycle of life..and I think it is sometimes wise to remember when things were in bloom and at full strength
October 2nd, 2016 3:48 pm
Well done on the stages of growth and transition in both our memories and the collected reminders of the past. Sometimes bitter-sweet. Great metaphor.
ZQ
October 2nd, 2016 6:00 pm
That is quite the poem about sunflowers-I think we all share the same, if not similar, thoughts.
October 2nd, 2016 7:10 pm
This is a stunning poem I really loved it. What a great reminder it is to never waste a moment of our lives as happiness is not forever and our memories of it must be full for when the sad times come.
October 3rd, 2016 12:15 am
oh, this does remind me of Van Gogh’s sad sunflowers.
really enjoyed your poem.
October 3rd, 2016 6:15 pm
I never thought of sunflowers this way, but you made me see. Sometimes I feel like the bowed old woman myself!
Well done.
October 4th, 2016 3:51 pm
Such beautiful sadness in this poem, reflection on love and loss, the life and death of nature around us. Yes, this speaks of Autumn – and to bring Van Gogh’s art into it was perfection. Thanks for sharing.
October 4th, 2016 11:26 pm
Vincent and you.
October 5th, 2016 6:44 am
The conditions of sunflowers seem very bleak and painful, just sometimes what we face in life.
October 5th, 2016 4:42 pm
I like to think of myself as a sunflower. I am starting to droop, but until I disappear I will maintain some small bit of sun. Gorgeous writing!
October 8th, 2016 11:59 am
Yowza! What a colossal observation. Whoosh.
August 6th, 2021 11:58 am
Growth and decline, a cycle that’s part of everything around us. Memories of growth and joy are a medicine in that decline.