the sun and her flowers

The poems in this chapter correspond to the wilting stage in the life cycle of a flower. There are more than 20 poems, although sometimes it is hard to tell where one poem ends and another begins. Often there is a word or phrase in italics immediately below a poem, which can serve as its title and mark where the poem ends, but not all the poems are marked in this way.

The poems are bleak and convey raw emotional pain. Thematically, they record the speaker’s feelings in the aftermath of a troubled romantic relationship. She describes her broken heart and the whirlwind of conflicting emotions she experiences. At one point she imagines her lover is still there, and she also thinks of what they could have built together had he stayed. She is not starry-eyed, however. She knows how badly flawed the relationship was, and she tried many times to end it. Talking with a therapist, she tries to articulate what love means to her. Even as she laments her loss, however, she also says in one poem that she remained loyal to the man, even after he left. Then she lashes out at him in the next poem, saying that he will suffer just as he made her suffer.