Laughing At Something The Tree Said! Poem by Dónall Dempsey

The flowers live here.

This garden is
their home.

Time is meaningless.

They all believe
they are the only
flower
that ever
existed.

And when they visit
next summer

they can't believe
they've gone to seed

& act as if they were
the same flower

of time
gone by.

Their belief
in themselves

...unrelententingly
un-repentently.

From the open
kitchen window

of the house next door
Strauss's Radetsky March

strikes up

& the dozy house
wakes up

its doors & windows
looking startled.

i almost expect
the flowers to fall

into step
& march

out of their
beds

out of the
front gate

down the street

keeping a regimented
brisk pace.

But they don't.

They just chat
back & forth

to the breeze
tickling the hedge

laughing at something
the tree said.