Red Dahlias

This is the risk we take to bloom.

My friend says Spring
is not new life unchallenged
is not a guarantee of triumph
is not always a feast for bees
or a new beginning.

He says Spring
is also failure
is also heartbreak
is also defeat
and loss and longing.

When he knelt at his altar
hands dug deep in cool soil
he could not know if
those seeds he planted
those buds he cocooned
would break through
would respond to his tending
or survive the winter.

What doesn’t survive
deserved the energy of his effort.
This is the risk we take, he says,
to bloom.