STRANGLED BOUQUET

They began to die the moment they were found  
The moment they were plucked from the ground  
Torn from their roots webbing beneath the earth  
and in that moment when death had begun  
they were given a new birth  
A new meaning, new purpose, new worth  
meant to be passed on from my hand to hers  
where an intentional sentiment not always occurs  
A burst of thirst with a need to feed  
an unending universe to spread my seed  
I held the flowers too tight in my hand  
within a clenching fist that you can't understand  
as I watched as the petals drift to the floor to die  
and everything I loved flutters like screaming butterflies  
fluttering like broken petals upon the floor  
from my strangled bouquet no more