Writing Competition Special Merit

Writing competition – Special merit

Flowers from Crevices by John Ellis

Reared in private health care, under dietary control,

Cosseted for life they bloom and are checked,

Their pedigree examined, quality under scrutiny,

They lie in prescribed life support until cut,

Ready for a fickle market which may need them just for a day.

Their beauty put on display invites no more than a glance

And soon they will meet their contemporaries

Decomposing on a heap as their former fragrance

Merges with ranker perfume and dies.

The luckier ones, claiming little more than novelty in their provenance,

Are potted, flaunted and plotted along the imaginary catwalk of a show

To preen themselves in the gardens of the rich.

They cannot be aware that, in small crevices,

Sometimes in the pointing of a brick, a real life struggle goes on,

Where aubrietia, forget-me-not and even hollyhock

Determine to thrive off crumbs and strive,

With the blooming of a smile, to show us their true worth.