Flowers In Bloom Poem by Thomas Buckley

flowers in bloom
unfolding petals silently, with winter’s glacial
touch far from stems, broken;

running ice water from rivers, aqueduct
forth to the soil of my birthing

grounds flowing over in abundant life arrays
and with yielding brighter days
comes population

through season to season from season into
winter again
for his fingertips are shivering
my spine

arctic nails like knives, dragged
gently along the roses thorn
with buds folding closed, falling eternal
sleep
to night like coma