is a flower a tear (no)

[betteroffbad]

Is a flower a tear by Winter shed
with regret when Spring's slush floods it
or is it the bead of sweat on Spring's head
as it strains to produce leaves and whatsit

is a flower an ear that listens long
for the trickle of groundwater dribbling
or it it one note of a thematic song
about eternal return and such quibbling

flowers it turns out are none of these things
they have troubles and lives of their own
and the world is a series of concentric rings
from which all the kitsch has long flown