Withering Flowers

• Matilda Marozzi, Grade 10, Ballarat & Clarendon College
• Poetry
• 2008

Finalist in the 'Summertime Fun 2008/2009' competition

Withering slowly before my eyes,
We share in blood, memories and love
And now you’re my once strong flower, in its demise.
The end is inevitable, slow, cruel and clear.
We avoid talking about it, praying the problem will disappear.
Tipp-toeing around it, like a weed that will spread if it is so much as touched,
Life continues ambivalently on, as it always does.
And as the sunsets, on your final days,
There are so many words that I can’t find to say,
So we talk of the weather, but secretly I cry.
I fear the end, the end to your life.
Petals drained of colour, once tall stems stooped.
My beautiful, once strong flower is in its demise,
Disappearing slowly, right before my helpless eyes.