with flowers – by Alexander Bennetts

Poetry
Written By Alex Bennetts
ISLAND | ONLINE ONLY

If you hide behind a mixed bouquet you can get out of a tram fine. You can get out of small talk when you’re hoarding grief like a bundle of paper straws. With flowers, your headshot could be a botanist’s pin-up. It is bad luck to bring twelve daffodils to the grand opening of the skate park. Try sunflowers. A drive-through florist will suck every thorn from your bike’s front tyre. One day you will let the flowers rot in Tupperware vase, because there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. With flowers, you can pretend that you are happy.

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Image: Avrielle Suleiman - Unsplash

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Alex Bennetts

Alex Bennetts is a writer and music-maker from Hobart who lives in Melbourne. His work has been published in Meanjin, Westerly, Going Down Swinging and elsewhere.

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