Watermelon Poppies

The opium poppy is blooming now. I walk out in the early morning to cut its watermelon-colored flowers. Each of the four petals has a purple cheek, so the cut flowers combine stunningly with the campanula growing nearby, as well as the airy coral bells.

Indoors i arrange my bouquet and set it on the kitchen table so i can look at it frequently.

Tomorrow afternoon, sometime between 2:00 and 4:00, all the petals will suddenly drop, leaving nude seed pods standing in the vase and a ruffled skirt of coral petals cast carelessly on the table.

Impermanence.