Forget The Flower Poem by BYENKYA HENRY

Bring me twigs and forget the meat.
Bring me stalks and forget the flower.
The earth has already taught me
that beauty is the first thing to rot.

I no longer trust soft things.
Petals bruise too easily.
Songs fade.
Promises collapse like wet ash
between desperate fingers.

I have seen men smile with blood in their teeth
and call it mercy.
I have watched love decay slowly
in rooms without light,
where even God refused to linger.

So do not offer me roses.
Their fragrance reminds me of funerals.

Give me bark split by winter.
Give me roots choking beneath stone.
Give me the branch struck by lightning
that still refuses to fall.

I am tired of feasts that leave the soul starving.
Tired of polished mouths
hiding famine behind their prayers.

Let others worship the bloom.
I have lived long enough
to know the flower is only bait
hung above the grave.

Bring me the stalk instead —
the bitter spine left standing
after the world finishes feeding.