Apology Flowers
After an argument, he buys her a grocery store
bouquet. Two weeks later, she tears apart
his apology flowers—the pink roses, white
lilies, purple and yellow mums, the red-striped
carnations—trying to salvage what has not
decayed. She carries the bones of them
out to the garden—the spent blooms,
the limp stems. To the winter garden
of stubborn dirt clods and dry stalk stubbles.
They never got to enjoy last summer’s sweet
corn. The raccoons got there before
they could harvest anything of worth.
The bouquet grows smaller. Today, she lifts
the last rose from its tall watery grave.
She finds a smaller vase, fills it to the brim
with fresh water, fluffs the fading flower
heads. Wipes away the fallen petals.
*
Jessica D. Thompson’s poems have appeared in magazines and journals such as ONE ART, Verse Daily, Thimble, Gyroscope Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Eclectica, the Southern Review, and are forthcoming in Critical Humanities (Marshall University). In 2024, her poetry collection “Daybreak and Deep” was shortlisted for the Indiana Authors Award. Her poetry collection, “The Mood Ring Diaries,” released in 2025, was a finalist in the American Book Fest Best Book Awards for Narrative Poetry. Jessica has worked as a carhop, led groups into wild caves, answered crisis hotlines, and was a recruiter for a global corporation before retiring to a small cabin in the middle of a hardwood forest.
