My poem "Irises" was published among ten Poems of Merit in the 2020 edition of The Reach of Song, the annual anthology of the Georgia Poetry Society. I'm honored to share it.
Irises
Emerald blades rise like jagged swords
along the marble edge of an old family plot.
Perhaps irises flourished here years ago,
but what color will they be
if they decide to bloom again?
Barely surviving now, neglected,
they once graced this shady spot
where a dozen family members
lie forever in peace.
No one remembers who planted them
or when their flags first appeared.
There is no one to ask.
Perhaps the planter rests among the others
in this garden of death.
The blades are flat and fan-like.
Some rhizomes are buried,
entombed far too deep to send up stems.
Others are lying half-buried on the ground,
their tubers never piercing
a hole in the dark soil,
yet resting easy, believing their roots
will continue their work.
We dig up a few to take home to our yard.
No one will mind.
There is no one left to mind.
We will plant them in memory
of relatives who went before us.
But what color will their flowers be?
My sister guesses white.
Passing months will tell us for sure—
if the roots choose to take hold
in the garden of the living.
Carroll S. Taylor