Anna was excited that her poem ‘Wilt’ was selected to be part of the 2016 Short and Twisted Anthology, published by Celapene Press. Her poem was inspired by her photography series Wilt, that documented flowers her mother had kept.

Wilt

My mother keeps flowers until they wilt.

Late at night she picks out the drooping stems—

she tells me her mother did the same.

My father brings home a bunch for Rosh Hashanah.

By the third week, only one remains. Two months pass

and we check it’s not a plastic one thrown in by mistake,

by pressing on the petals with our fingernails,

leaving crescent marks. Three months pass

and my mother continues to change the water.

 

Four months pass and it mutates, edges expanding.

One night, the vase shatters. We sweep up the glass, wrap

shards in newspaper, eye the flower warily. Soon it takes

up the kitchen bench. The petals are big enough to cover

our round wooden table. We pull off the petals and use them

as tablecloths. Heirlooms to hoard in the linen cupboard.

Poem First Published in Short and Twisted Anthology 2016, Celapene Press