Sometimes It’s the Right Thing
You know, that little respite of flower
or the fragility of cherry blossoms
when you forget to write a haiku
because you’ve been to the dispensary
and it’s so nice to be able to walk
in the park and sit on the bench
see those imported cherry blossoms,
know that even in Tokyo
they are imported,
even in Washington DC
and even though you still have pain
it’s nice to know that it can be blunted,
no pun intended, for a little while
so that this gift of cherry blossoms
on trees that will never give us cherries
can be appreciated
because they don’t bloom every year
and as the hotter it gets
every year now
some day you know
that they won’t bloom at all
and now that you have your flower
you’re glad to know
that you’ll be dead
before that finally happens.
©2023 Denise Dumars All rights reserved.
Denise Dumars is a widely published author of poetry and short fiction as well as nonfiction. Her story “Scrape” currently appears in Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology. She is a retired college English instructor, retired literary agent, and retired librarian. Her current chapbook of poetry is called Cajuns in Space and Other Speculative and Fantasy Poems. She identifies as a Cajun mutt—Quebecoise and Cajun on her father’s side and everything else on her mother’s. She lives in Los Angeles’ beautiful South Bay, but her heart is in New Orleans.