Tiger Lily Poem by Barry Middleton

now when it comes to lilies
I do prefer the Tiger
each year it will return
for it is a survivor

my mother put it there
perhaps recalling youth
to me it spoke of life
it always told the truth

with summer spent and past
exhausted lilies fall
and Mom and Dad now lay
beneath the garden wall

but still those lilies bloom
so many seasons hence
the storm could not take them
for they had their defense

their roots are old and deep
and they have set their seed
I'll find them once again
when fettered souls are freed