Hard Working Flower

Hard Working Flower
by Gabe Redel


This flower
doesn’t have time
to be colorful.
It’s focus
is to grow taller.

All day long
it looks for the sun.
When the sun comes out
it stretches up past the grass
as far as it can.
It spreads out its petals
as wide as possible
so that it can soak up
as much sun as possible.

That kind of work isn’t easy.
It is tiring to keep up.
It is exhausting to not waste one second
of the day.

And it is stressful
when the sky is overcast
and all that work
isn’t earning as much sunlight on average.

The flower hasn’t gotten as tall
as it would like.
It has many more years
to work hard
before it can rest.

Truthfully, it doesn’t miss the days
of feeling colorful.
Sadness isn’t necessary.
Joy doesn’t sound good.

When the flower gets big and tall and strong
but its petals are a drab green,
the flower hopes
that others will mistake him as a weed
and just keep walking.