purple chrysanthemum flowers
[ This image is in the public domain. ]

Veil of the Flower

Son,
I found your father face down
in chrysanthemum.

Can’t stop seeing his bald head

the quarter moon
the blue sky.

Can’t stop the odor

trapped gophers
fried hair.

This is love, I tell myself

a dead father
finally dead. Forgive me, I didn’t cry,

didn’t bury him in a casket.
I placed a sheet over the rot

and watered with gasoline.
Lit the outline

of a sunflower, offered it
like a lamb.