Edition of 1, 2022
The Names of Flowers explores our thorny relationship with mortality. Because it’s so difficult for us to envision the end of our lives, we fall into the false belief that we’ll always have time to take on new projects and expand our knowledge, and so, we put things off. However, the time to evolve, to become a person who knows the names of flowers, is now.
Artwork created for the Flower Gang exhibition curated by Anna Condo for 1st Dibs auction house, May 2022.
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The Names of Flowers
I keep thinking there is time
to be a person
who knows the names of flowers.
Time, still, for my tongue
to form hyacinth and ranunculus
as I picture their explicit shapes.
Time to summon chrysanthemum,
to grasp permanence via perennial,
to write resilience as a zinnia.
To rouse the specificity of hydrangea,
lupine, phlox, kadpul, amaryllis,
in a poem.
To grasp softness via camellia,
night via brugmansia.
To befriend obscure buds,
petal by willing, wilting petal.
To evolve, in this life, beyond the daisy,
the orchid, the carnation. To reach further
than the rose.
To learn, to know, to become—
I keep thinking there is time.
