Bright Night of the We-Lilies

He brought lilies as a peace offering
along with other flowers
to each class he assigned a meaning
an artistic way to attempt repair.

The lilies came tightly closed
each taking their own sweet time
unfolding deliberately one by one
then exploding in orgasmic fullness

into the brightest of whites.

Though they would outlive our own ‘we’
they, too, underwent a return to dust
and perished one by one
each demise unveiling new layers of grief

An allegory for the fresh passing
of a ‘we’ as spectacular
in our slow, gorgeous unfolding
as in our decomposition back

into the blackest of nights.

R.