"Sunflowers"
from Arbor Vitae 4.5
by Renee Emerson
1.
I grew them at home once, pots along
the front porch; shook the withered
blossoms for seeds to bake and eat.
2.
Heads with weight like baby heads
too heavy to hold to the sun.
They dip like a sway towards sleep.
3.
A nod to passing
cars; a nod to the divide
of a farmer's road. The many
non-farmers driving by,
on the road they don't belong to,
did not make.
4.
A crop of sun flowering
under its own light, like us in our
darkness: blossom,
bloom and root.