She Went to Pick Flowers
By Mara Levi

She went to pick flowers by the ocean this morning
And now she’s sailing away
She must have seen something that you could not give her
To leave without a goodbye
She had told you that love is the land where you live
And the flowers that grow by the shore

So you bought her the shore
You said now it is yours, we can rent those old houses to pay
Now all the ocean and flowers belong just to you

She had whispered of days when the land was all flowers
And everyone’s yard had a few
You smiled, amused by her simplistic dreams
And you explained about “haves” and “have nots”
You said, “child, this world is made up so if you really want it
You just pull yourself up and it’s yours!”

One day she went to the shore for her flowers
And someone had picked them all bare
You went and you saw all your tenants were laughing
The flowers all wrapped through their hair
In your anger you tore all the flowers away shouting,
“these were not planted for you!”
And you carried them back and you planted again
So her flowers would grow by the spring

She went to pick flowers by the ocean this morning
And now she’s sailing away
She saw all the tenants were boarding a ship
For a land that had flowers to spare
She took them her flowers and boarded the ship, saying

“I never wanted to own these
I never wanted to take them from you
I dreamt of a land where the flowers grew freely
Enough so we all had a few”