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FLOWERS
Today I saw a woman
with a large bouquet of flowers
coming out of Trader Joe's.
I remembered that, every Monday,
Adelle brought such a bouquet
from Trader Joe's
to AC Transit
to brighten her desk.
One Monday,
miscalculating a left turn
towards a parking lot,
she totaled the car.
The accident was her fault,
and she had to phone me.
I hurried to the scene.
There she stood, entirely alone,
holding her flowers
in front of the wrecked car.
She looked utterly forlorn
and uncharacteristically waif-like.
I could not be angry at her.
I could feel nothing but love
and a desire to comfort
the beautiful lost thing before me,
the thing clutching her flowers.
Now that I have seen her through her death
and she is gone,
I remember that moment
as what might have been disaster and anger
but was instead
love
