Image: Lawrence Alma-Tadema – The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888)

Faith Rhiannon Clarke is a Journalism and English Literature graduate based in Cardiff. She is an aspiring International Journalist, especially interested in Middle Eastern affairs and conflict. However, she also has an innate love for literature, and her spare time is spent giving her undivided attention to both books and writing.

I’m cutting flowers for you

I’m cutting flowers for you;
I will choose them with care
at the local park:
slitting their stems surreptitiously
while the old people look
the other way

I won’t place them upright
in a vase or an old milk bottle. No-
I will let them
fatigue and languish
in the heat of midday sun

And days later,
when their yellow and purple
heads drop
limp, like unprepared mourners,
I will press them in a book
and leave them there.