Bloom in Reverse Quotes

“Not roses or carnations, chrysanthemums or tulips.
For her, Gerbera daisies, not because

of the 30 species, the fifth-most cut flower
in the world, their heads perfect halos of dazzling colors

that draw even the darkest of minds,
but because each flower is made of hundreds

of smaller flowers, and so there is no single bloom
that provides more chance,

extends the game of He Loves Me,
He Loves Me Not. Compelling is the urge

to work around the center,
dismantle a thing of beauty into the least

of its parts. How it finishes depends
on sheer luck, a numbers game of odds and evens

that often ends badly: if I could,
I’d have planted a bed of flowers in her head

to elongate the game, increase her chances,
or hope that one sturdy bloom would seed

and take root, spawn continuous subdivisions
of itself to keep her plucking away

at a Möbius strip of a garden that would end
to begin again. But she only had the one flower.

With it, she climbed the tallest mountain
and looked out over the edge, her mind

tearing at the petals, each dark thought
a synapse, an impulse held and then released,

held and released, until only the stalk remained—
I might, I might not, I just might."

-"Suicide Is a Mind Stripping Petals off Flowers”
― Teresa Leo, Bloom in Reverse