A Cherry Blossom Field and Other Flowers (free verse)

I discovered that my school

has a big, beautiful field

of lacey white cherry blossoms

all lined up in a row.

They looked like a line of ladies

in white lace dresses.

I never really noticed

how beautiful that town really is.

There are cherry trees everywhere—

big, fluffy pink ones

that look like highfalutin ladies

in trailing party dresses.

There are purple-blue seas of wisteria

and violets

and hyacinth

and other purple things

I don’t yet know the names of.

There are flowers that look like white stars,

golden carpets of dandelions,

trailing cherry trees with big pink flowers

that drape to the ground—

like graceful geisha girls

in pink kimonos, bowing low.

I thought of one day

bringing down a white bough

for my little brother to run his fingers over.

I thought of one day

pointing out each blossom to him,

naming them off as we go along.

“Wisteria,

azalea,

hyacinth,

crocus,

forsythia,

daffodil…”

By then,

I will know the names

of every flower in that town.