the flowers on my tv stand
my parents sent me flowers
in the mail
told me to have a better day
than the one before
two of them i’ve slowly watched die
over the course of seven days
there are a lot left
sometimes i think about pressing them
googling how to press them
using packaging tape
to secure them in my sketchbook
other times i think about them all dead
letting go of petals
i’ll have to sweep up from the floor
wondering how the whole arrangement
will look like in the trash
or maybe saving a few leaves
and using them as stencils
like a card my ex-boyfriend made me
sometime in 2012
when the roses
carnations
sunflowers and baby’s breath
do meet their end
maybe a week from now
i’ll make sure to save the wooden box
that housed them
take my aloe plant
from its plastic container
and give it space to grow
ella anderson / poetry /2020 / milwaukee, wi