I brought you flowers
the rain is the face
of a macadam// a moon
before abandonment grows
in the weeds
my mourning garden
shunning my hands in the absence
of throat weeds; and my bones are my father’s,
restless;
sheltered a sad death
in the thorns, my child,
the cat does not know penance
like you. A body’s destitution in the sun,
the delirium in her
as plant prostitution
of the ladybugs bind/twist
like a redolent heart
I called her my garden
just once
the kind of dying
that nobody wants
that nobody stalks for, and I did not beg
to make you Snow White
as my father bedded dry soil,
no I just wanted to disencumber your faces
before I abandon you.
You overslept rain
I cannot outlive or love you
as I am tired
of each humiliation
as your ghost rusts like madrigals,
like father always said—to add another to keep them out
but they danced in
the spit of water
to be my death
to keep the roses.
© 2021 lucysworks.com All Rights Reserved.
Written for the 7/13/2021 dVerse prompt where we write a poem about gardening, or something germane to it. I based this piece on reality as I recently had a little garden bowl of cacti and succulents that my cats went into.
Yes, they’re fond of cacti and apparently masochism. I personally believe they used the thorns to pick their teeth with.
My garden of death (or what it will be if I don’t plant the remaining ones outside soon), how fitting.

Also Happy 10th, dVerse. 🙂
99 responses to “I brought you flowers.”
Oh.. i really connected the dots when I read about the backstory. I could never imagine that cats would be attracted to cacti. Some really cool lines here
my child,
the cat does not know penance
like you
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Thank you, Bjorn!
Cats are… They just defy life and logic. That’s it.
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Love the redolent heart ❤️
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Thank you, Lona!
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so good – what a nice idea to use the thorns as tooth pickers – your cats def. have some imagination 🙂
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lolol My cats are creative little heart stompers, but I love them all the same. 😁
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How wonderful to imagine your cats picking their teeth on cacti! They do do strange things…The poem is wonderful, a dark garden of deep-rooted sorrows.
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Thank you very much, Ingrid. My cats are strange creatures. Should have known that when I found them at the asylum, I mean, cough, pet shelter.
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Mine is too – semi-feral I think!
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Do you have a cat?
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Deftly written Lucy.
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Thanks, Linda!
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Ohh this is incredibly vivid and oh so gripping, Lucy! I smiled at “thorns as toothpicks.” 🙂
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Thank you, Sanaa!
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Nice gritty piece. Hehe. The cats picked their teeth with the needles. Ah I would not put it past them.
I called her my garden
just once
the kind of dying
that nobody wants
This rings of love, and plays interestingly with the three father references. Perhaps a father that did not teach love, but dust. I dunno, just trying to scratch a bit deeper.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Thank you so much for your thoughts and feedback, Brian! I love what you took from this piece; and yep, cats always find a way.
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Spectacular post . You are fabulous with your pen, Lu. The creativity of your imagination knows no bounds. 💗💖
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Thank you so much, Yas! ❤ ❤ ❤
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My pleasure dear Lu 🤗
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❤
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💖
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I love your mourning garden of roses and thorns. I have cactus & succulents too but not cats. Thanks for joining in Lucy!
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Thank you so much, Grace! See, you got the perfect combination there lol. Those dang cats…
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I love getting lost in your imaginative words, Lucy.
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Thank you, Misky. ❤ ❤
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Ther5e are some very fine lines in this poem that especially truck me – too many to quote. I love the mourning garden, and “your ghost rusts like madrigals.” Wow.
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Thank you, Sherry!
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“the rain is the face
of a macadam”
“throat weeds”
“A body’s destitution in the sun,
the delirium in her
as plant prostitution
of the ladybugs”
“I did not beg
to make you Snow White
… I just wanted to disencumber your faces”
“You overslept rain”
These are killer lines. I’m imagining you visiting your mother’s grave, clearly having a great deal of unresolved issues between you.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Thank you so, so much for the thoughts and feedback. ❤ I can definitely see how you interpreted it, and I love how you view this poem.
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Lucy, your poetry challenges me to dig deep, search for meaning I might not recognize with one read. Thank you for that. This poem is amazing.
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Thank you, Helen, so much!
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Ahhhh, to keep the roses. From dying to regeneration. Beautiful, as always, dear Lucy. Love it.❤
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Thank you, Jeff!
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Welcome, Lucy! Always my pleasure.
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Lovely cat and lovely poem. Death and rebirth–the cycle of life. I am sure the cat knows it all.
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Aww, thank you so much. And I’m sure the cat does.
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incredibly stunning Lucy xo
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Thank you, MB! ❤ ❤
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Excellent work
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Thank you!
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I love your poem Lucy! Your describe this garden so eloquently. I love your incorporating your cat into the poem.
This is a great line… my child,
the cat does not know penance
like you.
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Aww, thank you Dwight!
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Amazing 🤩!!! Thank you
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I rather thank you. ❤ ❤
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I love the line “a moon / before abandonment grows/ in the weeds” Stunning! And “a cat does not know penance like you” 😀 Our cat wouldn’t know penance ever in any way like anyone. It’s a lovely poem full of surprising twists in language an imagery. Stark in its mourning.
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Aww, thank you so much. Honestly, that’s my favorite line too for some reason. I wanted to create abandonment imagery and it fit perfectly there. And hahaha, yeah cats are funny like that, they wouldn’t know penance if it came from the litter box. My first mistake was trusting mine lol.
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By the look of the photo you chose, this cat doesn’t look too worse for wear. Thank you for explaining at the end, Lucy.
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Hahaha, thank you Lisa! 😀
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You’re welcome 🙂
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So so incredible! There were so many exceptional lines in this poem. And the way you ended it, ‘to be my death, to keep the roses’, just awesome. Loved it ❤
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Aww, thank you! ❤️❤️
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You’re most welcome ❤❤
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Your brain is a wicked wonder – cuttingly creative, with a vicious, vivid vitality – a dark beauty.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Oh my, thank you so much Darius! How kind of you to say. ❤ ❤
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Grief is a cultivation, tended with care and growing a fresh drop of cold ocean. -Brendan
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That’s quite true! Thank you for the thoughts and feedback, Brendan!
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That was a wonderful read!! (despite its backstory being cats and their defiance😂)
Thank you!
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Thank you so much!
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Some exquisite lines lines Lucy and I thought I was going to a dark place. As always, your words make me sit up and think! I was happy to see the funny side of it and your cats being the culprits. Toothpicks indeed! 🤣 LOL
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Thank you so much, Christine! My cats are monsters. 😂
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I’m sure they can be! I’ve had 4 black cats Lucy and now I have two black Labs. I love black ☺️💕
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Loved my wander through your garden of words, as do I always Lucy.
“I cannot outlive or love you
as I am tired
of each humiliation”
This section jumped out, perhaps out of context, but it resonated for me as the lament of a spurned lover, still pining. I think perhaps because I had that experience with my first wife. In fact, we took turns sharing that experience. They other couldn’t or wouldn’t leave the other’s reality, and yet the relationship, while addictive, was toxic.
I can see your cat getting pricked on the nose by a cactus needle, and the head snapping back, paw swiping at the air — but after a pause, the cat going right back in. Cats are curious and persistent, often to a fault.
BTW: your cat looks identical to a cat Kathy and I had for 14 years. Her name was Taja. Purely a house cat. She was pure black, golden eyes, and had a perfect little white diamond in the exact middle of her chest, just below her neck. She was cool! Cancer got her… 😕
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Rob, thank you so much for your lovely words and thoughts. I can see how those lines resonated with you, and it’s interesting because I didn’t initially see it that way but now I do. That’s really tragic and indeed toxic.
Hehe, yeah, cats are anything if not resilient. Guess why the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat.
Oh my, she sounds so gorgeous and I’m glad you were all able to give her a happy life. I’m so sorry cancer got her, that is a heartbreaking experience to go through with a pet. Mine is 11 years old and I am trying to cherish every moment with him I have.
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I loved the line “my mourning garden”, and how it takes such a different meaning once you explained the backstory. Wonderful poem(s given the change), thank you.
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Aww, thank you so much!
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oh, you grabbed me with the title / first verse and never let go ~
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Aww, thank you. ❤
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Nice poetry and I love your black cat as well. Lovely ❤️
It would be grateful if you could visit my blog as well.
https://mystorytellings.com
Thanks a lot. 🥰
LikeLiked by 4 people
Aww, thank you.
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Beautifully formed and expressed ❣️
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Aww, thank you!
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What a very imaginative poem! Love your creativity much! Thorns as toothpicks- clever 😉😊
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Hahaha, thank you so much! 😃
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I can relate to this
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❤️❤️
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♥️❤️
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❤ ❤
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[…] I brought you flowers. […]
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Thank you so much for sharing! ❤
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An amazing piece of work Lucy, wonderful in every aspect. Your imagination and the way you tell it to the readers is amazing. Thankyou
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Aww, thank you so much! I really appreciate you saying that. ❤️
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You are very welcome Lucy
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I had a black cat too. We named him Schatten. He destroyed my roses. He kept tipping the vase over with his paws. I have it on video somewhere. It always makes me smile. Black cats are so playful. Awww yours is gorgeous. I hope your flowers survive!
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Aww, Schatten sounded like such a gem! That is hilarious. ❤ Black cats are indeed playful, so precious and curious. Thank you so much, and hopefully my plants survive. I planted them outside so hopefully they’ll recover nicely.
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I hope so ! Kittys can do a number on them ! Schatten was a gem. He was my best friend . He would crawl on my laptop while I was doing a paper for college and force me to take a break haha. It was so cute !!!
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AWWW ❤ ❤ My heart can’t take this cuteness, oh my god.
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Yeah it was too precious !!!!!! He was the sweetest little love bug !!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️😍😍😍
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It’s wonderful
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Thank you!
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So good 😀
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Thank you! 😀
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Hi Lucy, I enjoyed “I brought you flowers.” I would also like to thank you for stopping by my page. It always means a lot to me when you visit because of my admiration for your work. Your style is different from my own and it expands my awareness of what language can do when I read your poems. That and cats.
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Aww, thank you so much. I don’t know what to say! I’m happy you enjoy my work, I enjoy yours as well very much. ❤️❤️
And the cats are only a bonus, hehe.
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Reminded me of Dusty Springfield and the Pet Shop Boys “What have I done to deserve this?”
… I bought you drinks, I brought you flowers
I read you books and talked for hours
Every day, so many drinks
Such pretty flowers, so tell me
What have I, what have I, what have I done to deserve this?
What have I, what have I, what have I done to deserve this?
What have I, what have I, what have I
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Ooh, I can see that! 😀 Thank you so much.
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It’s really fantastic
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Thank you! ❤️
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I enjoyed this poem. It’s very nice to come upon one that has music and rhythm and for which the space to enter into it requires concentration and sensitivity. That yet don’t go unrewarded! “as your ghost rusts like madrigals” : a very nice phrase. In conveys really well the subjective feeling behind it. I’ve been there too.
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Thank you so, so much!
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