Do You Hear The Flowers Calling? by Tor Rose

running barefoot through the meadows

towards shaded trees

towards fresh fruit hanging at

a reasonable height

one final glance over our shoulders

and the death of pretense

swallowed by the horizon

do you hear the flowers calling?

with such enthusiasm

it is almost desperate—

is that what we sound like?

lapped in the gentle warmth of

the grass with an overturning of

words in our mouths?

a whisper within a whisper

within a whisper

passes with the wind,

follows the riverbeds down

to their lucid reflections

perhaps a reason lost

is a reason found,

and we can have our poetry

and eat it too

what has died in various ways

longs to be born again—

but alas,

the memories have already begun

losing shape

BEHIND THE POEM:

I have a hard time discussing my poems because they all come from an elusive place. One that I’m not sure I’ll ever fully understand. They often speak to introspection, self-realization, existential fear. I’m unnerved by this pursuit of immortalization because I feel technology has taken so much of our humanity already. “Do you hear the flowers calling?” is essentially an ode to our dissonance; how neglectful we are of Earth and what it provides. “Perhaps a reason lost is a reason found,” invites the prospect of a silver lining. We are always free to run—and we ought to—if only to find a way back to ourselves. Otherwise we will have nothing to return to.

ABOUT:

Tor Rose is an award-winning poet emerging from the streets of New York. She is the author of Frayed Edges (2023). Work of hers appears in Half and One, volume no. 59 of Red Cedar Review, GRANTA, Aesthetica Magazine, and elsewhere. Find her @torchristiano.

EDITOR'S SONG PAIRING: edapollo --- Wildflower (Marley Carroll Remix)