POETRY MONTH DAY # 11 — OF ROSES AND MARIGOLDS AND IMITATION LOVE

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On Wednesday (April 15th) our poems will be online; links will be added soon as I have them. Wish we could be doing this live, but this is the next best thing.

So. A poem to do with flowers today. Okay. Here goes...

Of Roses and Marigolds and Imitation Love

I'm listening to the radio 

well, not the radio, to some music channel on the Internet 

as we do now, listening to old stuff 

because sometimes you just want to know all the words

so you can sing along and blot out reality 

and who comes on but  Anita Bryant,

you know, the anti-gay orange juice chick,

and she's singing about paper roses and imitation love 

and all I can think of is the first gay couple 

who I knew was actually a couple,

decades before same-sex marriage was legal 

or even considered a possibility 

and how one time one of them brought a bouquet of flowers 

to the office for his friend, his partner, the love of his life 

to celebrate a birthday or an anniversary or spring, 

I don't remember, but someone asked him

what happened to the marigolds 

—apparently there were supposed to be marigolds in the bouquet—

and he said he couldn't abide orange thanks to Anita 

and I wonder what he'd think about the colour now

 given its frequent mention in politics these days 

and when I remember that couple all I know is 

if that was imitation love I think we all could use some.

~~~~~~~~~

There. Boy, you just never know where these prompts are going to take you, do you? 

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