The Mandevilla Declines

A poem.

Pink petals
peeking through the overgrowth of shrub –
O'Keeffe's brushstrokes. Tightly folded racemes
like summer dresses,
left closeted, unworn. Woody trailing vines
demur from embracing the trellis,
inflorescence un-displayed. The Mandevilla declined
to dip her roots into the water basin,
to blow her trumpets. Foolish annual
saving her bloom
for some special occasion.