drooping sunflowers
i look at the cut sunflowers
at the entranceway to the grocery
three for seven bucks
only they are already drooping
in their big, scratched plastic vase
how depressing to see sunflowers this way!
i think of van gogh’s sunflowers instead
the tranquil feeling of monet’s painting as well
how many people have stood in front of them
from peers to assholes with ipads
who take their quick tourist photos
and then move on without really looking
those immortal sunflowers on canvas
always vibrant and full, never heading toward decay
i think those museum pad-holes deserve
to look at these grocery sunflowers
instead of those painted by the masters
let them take their photos of these dying monstrosities
and post them onto facebook or tumblr or instagram
for people no longer experience anything
as the general course of their life
but must always be the focus
like everyone has become a three year-old child
so they might as well save themselves
the twenty-five dollar museum entrance fee
there is no hope for these sunflowers
i could buy them all and give them a proper burial
some will get bought
most will get tossed with the expired meat and eggs
i think of drooping sunflowers
wilting in the late summer sun
then i go inside the grocery store
to buy two ripe pink lady apples
from a cashier who looks so angry
like i ruined her day just by saying hello
or perhaps she’s bent out of shape
about the sunflowers dying too.