The Woman Holding Flowers

Everyday ends like this. The woman holding flowers. She smiles and hands unsuspecting passersby a flower. Sometimes she even goes so far as to tuck the flower in their hair, or into the strap of their backpack. The people smile and say thank you, not knowing why but thankful just the same. Then the woman asks for money. The flower costs money? The people apologize but the woman doesn't give in. Demanding money for her flowers that aren't even real. Plastic red flowers. There is symbolic meaning in this but I don't know what it is yet.

She tried to give me the flower once but I refused to take it. Why would I want a plastic flower? They are the cheap kind you find in craft stores. Where the stems are already connected in a loop so that you can easily attach them to whatever it is you're making. I think this bothers me most of all. A plastic flower should at least try to look like a real flower.

Does anyone ever buy the flower? Out of embarrassment or an unwillingness to say no? And what do they do with it? Do they throw it away immediately, or keep it? Leave it on the street or somewhere inside their house? Does it sit on top of a bureau, or a bookcase, out of sight but not forgotten? The plastic red flower forced upon them in a moment of weakness. Tucked away reminding them of the woman holding flowers. Waiting.

Everyday ends like this. The woman holding flowers.

The plastic red flower. What does it mean?

You'll never really know--- unless you take one.