Red Geranium on an Isolation Ward

She knew how to die –
the earth around her stem
was so dry it refused
the water we poured there

and though, like a ritual,
we snapped off
each bruised cluster
before it had time

                         to fall,

              there was no renewal –

even the sun pushing
             its fist through the window
                          could not coax her.

Maggie Sawkins
“Red Geranium on an Isolation Ward” first appeared in Acumen Literary Journal, 2005.