Wildflowers

WILDFLOWERS 

By Shannon Brooks

Echinacea, how you vex me. 

Your appealing petals lay

like ribbon around the medal-

studded flower heads, 

their discs like trophies, protruding,

layered like dinner plates of pollen. 

Your daisy-like blooms fortuned

to host parties with waxy delights 

and winged creatures, 

yet my garden you reject --

as my seeds scatter

from dried cones, like a curse

delivered on the winds;

Yet the wild fields are welcoming, 

waving their flowered stems. 

I dedicated this poem to the elusive cone flower, or echinacea, which I have attempted to grow several times.