It's Still Life

Crowded for Solace

After the windmills, after the millstones
and ground flour,
after cheese and waffles, after the canals
and too many coffees,
after all that, all I really wanted to see
was the tulips.
Pert groups of them. Tall in pots. Lingering
in their fading colours.
Like motherless children crowded together
for solace.
I wanted to take them home, let them
take up residence.
I would converse with them daily, and we’d
stare skyward, watch clouds,
until they withered back into themselves,
as we all must eventually.

written to one of Miz Quickly’s Primo Prompts “Tulips”