The Fireman Saw Sunflowers

Painting by Jeffrey Smith


THE FIREMAN SAW SUNFLOWERS


The Fireman saw sunflowers
in Minnesota,
icarus sunflowers
on the northern shores
of the Mississippi,
a thousand flowers,
a thousand voices saying
yes
saying
we will sing in September,
knowing the cold awaits us

To see them growing
among the broken stones,
where roots hold tight
the way angels hold storms,
to see them speaking the language of color
and mud and minutes
in the crisp autumn air,
waving in the wind,
is to know, if only for a moment,
the sweet electric energy
of an immanent god.


Richard Smyth

Posted over on Anabiosis Press