Donal Mahoney- A Poem

Midnight in the Garden of Envy

 

It's hot in our bedroom this midnight in June.

The air conditioner died but my wife sleeps on. 

She spent the day weeding the garden.

I finally decide to open a window

and pray for a breeze.

No breeze but I hear roses and lilies

arguing about which is the prettier, 

which of them deserves more space 

in the garden to unfurl their beauty,

petal by petal, like Gypsy Rose Lee.

The peonies mock the roses and lilies,

claiming peonies are the prettiest of all.

The petunias along the borders yell

not to ignore them because they're not tall.

Suddenly there's a ruckus among the hibiscus.

They, too, claim they're the most beautiful.

They want more space, as do the hydrangeas.

The roses decide to offer a compromise.

Tomorrow they promise to count 

which flower in the garden attracts

the most butterflies and honeybees.

The flower that attracts the most 

will be named the most beautiful 

and be given more space in the garden  

and won't lose a bloom to bouquets. 

The other flowers discuss in a whisper

the compromise offered by the roses.

They take a vote and agree to comply.

Finally, silence returns to the garden.

I tell my wife in the morning to hide out 

in the yard with a clipboard to confirm

which flower attracts the most 

butterflies and honeybees.

We can't trust the roses, I tell her.

They'll cheat on the final results.

I ask her to keep an eye on the sunflowers

since they didn't join the furor at midnight 

over which flower's the most beautiful.

I tell her more butterflies and bees 

will visit the sunflowers tomorrow

than any of the others because 

sunflowers at noon leap in the air 

and kiss every cloud in the sky.

 

 

 

Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.