from Remember the Flowers
Winner (Poetry) of the 2021 Stone Soup Book Contest
When, at ten thirty you took to
Turning the knob of the piano bench,
Raising it to your height,
And sat on the tattered black,
On the wooden floor upstairs, I thought,
A good day to play
Going on vacation.
From the cabinet top, I took down
The round blue hatbox trimmed with white ribbons
And painted ladies on the side
Watering potted flowers
In little brown straw sun hats
Under the summer sky.
Inside I packed ten velvet hats.
I took the green one out and put it on.
Someone’s something bought it
Once upon a time
At an antique store.
While you repeated Hanon
Downstairs,
I packed
Then lugged my box of hats
Onto a white Ikea chair
And boarded my
Steam train
Bound
For somewhere.
Remember the Flowers was released on September 1, 2022.
You can order the book at Barnes & Noble or through our Amazon store: Amazon.com/stonesoup.
