You Have A Right Poem by Nan Williamson

you have a right

You have a right to carnations,
the flowers of god.
But be careful:
purple carnations are capricious,
the night delights them.
They are las flores de los muertos.

Anemones, fragile
daughters of the wind,
shrink from human touch.
Scarcely a week has passed
and the peonies are smashed, petals skewed
on wet black soil.

Don't uproot a single bloom:
just see a single violet in the grass
as it is
no more no less.