The Gardenia

Her shimmering lavender gown of satin and lace Made her look like a fairy princess dressed for the dance. The lad held a delicate, creamy-white gardenia On her shoulder next to her radiant, beaming face. She had requested an orchid; she thought it so chic, The sweet fragrance of the gardenia altered her choice She admired herself in the grand vestibule mirror, And gave her timid boyfriend a sweet peck on the cheek. When the evening ended, she carefully put the bloom Pressing between pages of her senior annual, A reminder of that night for the rest of her life She gave it a special place on a shelf in her room. As the years crept slowly by, and events shaped her life Like the pressed gardenia she had carefully hidden, Her memory of the lad from long ago faded She mothered her seven children, another man's wife. One day her husband given a promotion senior, Came home early to take his good wife out to dinner She descended their staircase dressed in satin and lace He pinned a sweet-smelling gardenia next to her face.