loyalty of flowers

LOYALTY OF FLOWERS

Dogs all love to hunt, but fetch
your slippers when you’re resting up.
Cats are fun: when they don’t kvetch
they’re more fun than a messy pup.
Bunny rabbits tend to re-
produce so fast you must take care
to make sure that they’ll never be
with co-eds in a hutch they share.
Tortoises are ideal pets,
they move so slowly they will never
in races against hares win bets,
although they seem to me more clever.
If you keep fishes in a tank
you’ll have to feed them every day;
do not expect they’ll ever thank
you—they’re like children, I would say.
Do not expect from any beast
the loyalty that you expect
from children, who, at least,
give some before they disconnect.
There’s nothing in the world more loyal
than flowers in a garden or
a vase, and they are hard to spoil
because they never ask for more.

Inspired a Croatian friend whose comment on my poem “The Dog Was Made to Hunt and Guard” was:

There’s nothing as loyal as a flower in a vase.

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