Finding Symmetry

Cat Pritchard

To seek symmetry,
is to find true balance.
Two halves,
coming together as one.

A lesson in flower arranging,
I learn by way of a sermon.

Glynnis comes from a proud lineage
of church flowers,
of women who know how to reap what they sow.
You would sooner see a camel go through the eye of a needle,
than find a wayward flower in her Sunday gatherings.

Unity must be achieved by massing similar flowers.
Colour, shape and pattern must complement not compete.

She rids each flower of unwonton leaves
scraping stubborn bark
from hardened stems.

No single flower must draw attention to itself
it's duty is to bring glory to the whole.

Her left hand falls on a long stemmed rose
still young in the bud
stripped of thorns
the stem submits to her rubber glove
but lies stiffly
only its leaves sound a brief dissent
when she clips the stem
roughly
and submerges it in water
for a brief
baptismal moment.

It will live longer that way.

Glynnis does not approve of my choice
of wild flowers.

Cosmos are very difficult
to control
you never quite know
which way
they will fall.

Her words arrange themselves
uniformly,
from an oasis soaked in meaning.

I submit
my loosely constructed spray,
stems flopping forwards
not for the weight of the whimsical flowers
with no understanding of symmetry
or balance
but in reverence
of those who do.

LitNet: 08 November 2005

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