Sunflower

My love of sun flowers began at a very early age.  My father would plant them, every year, outside the smallish white farmhouse that I spent all of my childhood loving - and hating.  He always planted the huge ones, stalks that stood as tall as the house itself, and they were my idols.  Those tall flowers towered in the yard, looking tall and proud, ever reaching towards the sun that let them prosper.

and I wanted to be like them.  Maybe that sounds weird to you - and it is a bit queer to want to be like a flower.  Sunflowers are simple and complex and while the rose is exclaimed and exalted as an idol of beauty the sunflower takes claim over the overcoming.  Besides, what use is a rose after it's wilted?  A sunflower provides nutrition and ironically, more life.