The Florist
When I walk out of the temple
towards evening a man with baskets
of flowers at his feet insists
I take some I nod and smile
he nods and smiles and starts
piling them up in my arms like kindling
bringing more and yet more flowers
up from his baskets even as I shake
my head laughing until I can’t even
see the man for all the flowers he is
giving me and when I set them down
gently to thank him and pay him
for them he has disappeared
people are still coming out of the temple
I start insisting they take some flowers