The career of flowers differs from ours
                   only in audibleness.
                            —Emily Dickinson

Affection jonquils can bespeak,
red tulips, Love. Strategic, meek,

she shears some lilies for her carafe,  
adds jasmine sprays to telegraph

hesitant Sensuality,
plan pleasures neighbors need not see.

A full-blown rose, Meet Me Tonight,
placed over two buds, warns Secret Flight.

Lush honeysuckle may confuse,
since Bonds of Love might still refuse

if she's twined sprigs of dark green holly,
Foresight, with columbine for Folly.

And if some love has proven false,
fallen for one of her friends, or worse...

it's lobelia, Malevolence,
dark-stemmed blue buds, small ones. She's tense,

troubled, teary with dismay.
She adds no card to this bouquet,

dead leaves spell Melancholy, season
favors sour whortleberry, Treason.