Rob S. Friedman
May 2025
Flower Power, in Four Scenes
The grown-ups leave bodega bouquets near the teddy bears and other plush animals propped up against sturdy candle wax tubes, all soon a tragic debris field of astonished plastic eyes crying over wilted petals.
Those of sufficient means or wearying distance scroll through images of arrangements organized by size, shape, and intended proximity — wreath stands, a floral coffin drape, a tasteful vase to be carried home with the grief.
Somewhere even today questions about corsage placement become urgent in the minds of prom bound boys, as they circle the mall parking lot with their mothers, whose own calendared day of obligatory appreciation proved disappointing.
Yet the pathos of the tribute flower — most silently present in my sister’s bedroom, with its rose patterned wallpaper right angled against a carpet of primrose buds never trod upon by a varsity lettered hero.
Rob S. Friedman 