Daisy Chains

This poem came runner up in the Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize in the connections category.

Link by link

I thread each stem

With careful precision.



Tongue on my lip

Eyes bright, attentive

My busy fingers

Make deep slits in their pretty necks

Until the juice

Secreting

Dyes my fingertips

As green as my knees.



Barefoot in the soil

Toenails, dirt-caked

Burrow,

Seeking a pebble

To stop them from sinking.



I watch them fall

Spiralling

One by one

A blur of colour

Heads splitting

Petals exploding,

Broken.



Link by link

I thread each precious stem

With careful precision.