Lowes on 2nd Avenue

by Marley Reedy

Felled mud

Forming banks

On concrete

Becoming river

Felled mud

Forming banks

On concrete

Becoming river

Raining in the

Parking lot on

The green car

On the drunk

Windshield.

Rotted belly

Flower sick

Ugly plant

Becomes less

Than a barcode

Red marker

says $4.00 2.00

Price is

everything

On a

laminated sheet.

Rain can

Be selfish

Keeping flowers

From a bothered

Consumer inside.

Flowers are shades

of pink and green

Have tags

That say

The wrong thing.

Flowers are red

And yellow

And nobody

Is buying them.

In the parking lot

A woman pulls

A U-turn

With a palm

In the backseat.

Leaving the

Parking lot in

Disappointed green.

Sick sick

and ugly plant

Decay is a

Grossly sweet

Smell that

Sticks to

Your boots

and yellow

Gardening gloves.

Falling is

An ocean

Blame me

For not culling

Dying plants.

Blame the

Customer for

not buying them.

Blame root-

rotting time,

Petal-drowning

water, flower-

killing rain.

In Gowanus

It’s green

In the worst

way. Green

Plastic flooding

Like a basement.

Marley Reedy is a biracial woman from Brooklyn. Her writing is a blend of internal, external, and abstract observation. She enjoys listening to old love songs and unearthing the poetry of everyday life.

Illustration by Mandi Zhu