Villainous Poetics: Dead Flowers
A reflection on love’s impermanence and the bittersweet beauty found in the end of a relationship.
The bouquet you gave me still sits on the table,
I cherish those flowers, though they’re dead now.
Time caught up to them, like it did with us,
No amount of water, no new soil could keep them alive.
Sometimes I wonder if they lost the will to carry on,
Were the conditions too harsh for them to survive?
That poor arrangement, destined to beautifully die,
And I think about how those flowers and we shared a similar fate.
We were never meant to make it through the year,
But God, we tried. I tried.
Maybe you saw the ending more clearly,
While I was blinded by the love we had,
Unaware of the love we couldn’t keep.
A brutal optimist behind a pessimistic smirk,
My love for happy endings kept me from getting hurt.
So I keep that bouquet in a vase on the table,
To remind me that even in death, flowers are beautiful.
Author’s note:
This poem reflects the bittersweet reality that not all relationships are meant to last, no matter how much we hope or try to make them work. Just like the bouquet of flowers that slowly fades, some connections simply run their course, and we’re left to grapple with the beauty and pain of their inevitable end. The flowers, once vibrant and full of life, mirror the way our hearts often cling to what was—holding on even as the situation begins to wither. It’s a reminder that, sometimes, we need to let go and accept that love, like nature, can be fleeting. Through this piece, I explore the paradox of holding onto something that’s already gone, and how, even in endings, there’s still beauty to be found.
With love,
j w