Purple Flowers

PURPLE flowers, mark the space

Where your pale ashes were strewn;

Another soul out of place,

Its vessel burned, yet far too soon.

Purple flowers, a gentle storm

To capture hearts and there beguile;

A substitute for human form,

Skin, bone, that timeless smile.

Purple flowers, tho' death is afoot,

Their vibrant petals hide the truth;

Specks of grey, a trace of soot,

Windblown, like fragile youth.

© Troy Southgate, 31.VII.25