Wildflower

I exist bound by you like wildflowers planted pitilessly in dry soil that plunder and devour the strength of my seeds My stem grows pallid My petals scentless and uninspiring My roots withering in arid dust strangled by weeds of apathy Parched in the blight of callous care Squandered in winds of insentient lies That snare fire like fugitive arsons Burning me with insensitivity to shrivel and sicken As you beget your vanity with the strength Of the Sun’s scalding degrees So scarce the waters of your compassion that scarcely feed my soul I stand naked, bare and weak in the barren home inside your pain I cling harder to grip As I wither in the dust of lonely casualty Strangled and forfeited I slowly die clenched in your fist of willful despair trembling from your demise As my unseeing love yields the compromise May 24, 2023 Brian Strand Premier No. 1219 Poetry Contest