I will accept your flowers...

I will accept your flowers
With a guilty heart
For robbing them of life
Which we can never impart.
I will hold them gently
Close to my chest,
But will they find it worthy
Even for a momentary rest?
from their faint fragrance
I seem to hear their words,
'Why do you pluck us in bloom,
Like you shoot down the birds?
'Tomorrow when we will wilt
You will throw us in the dust,
But the same fate awaits you,
You'll return to dust, yes, you must.

© Portia Burton