Review on "Orchids", By Hazel Simmons McDonald
Orchids
I leave this house box pieces of the five week life I've gathered. I'll send them on to fill spaces in my future life. One thing is left a spray of orchid someone gave from bouquet one who makes a ritual of flower-giving sent. The orchids have no fragrance but purple petals draw you to look at the purple heart. I watered them once when the blossoms were full blown like polished poems. I was sure they'd wilt and I would toss them out with the five week litter. They were stubborn. I starved them. They would not die. This morning the bud at the stalk's tip unfurled. I think I'll pluck the full-blown blooms press them between pages of memory. Perhaps in their thin dried transparency I'll discover their peculiar poetry.
REVIEW
The Poem titled Orchids composed by Hazel Simmons McDonald, focuses on the authors contemplation on a brief five weeks life on a single orchid plant and although the orchids had very little value to the author, The orchid is the symbol of her reaction to brief five week life.
The line “one who makes a ritual of flower-giving sent.” shows that the gift of the orchid held no particular sentimental value as the one giving the gift normally gives flowers as presents to loved ones.. As she contemplates on her past few weeks she finds herself being resentful and hostile to the flower. The author is so "unbothered"and sure that like her five week relationship the orchids would wither and become but a faint memory to be tossed out with the five week litter.
Her hostility towards the by watering them once then leaving them to starve she was sure they would have withered of neglect. But Its blossoms surprise the persona and “the blossoms were full blown like polished poems”. This simile shows how well developed, perfect the blossoms are. "The comparison to polished poems means that the blossoms are refined and great care was placed in their creation".
When leaving her five week life concluded her orchids still bloomed and thrived even after their abusive conditions, possibly like the poet. As she was prepared herself to leave she admired their resilience to its environment , which was when she plucked their bloom, and pressed them between pages of memory possibly in the hope of understanding the lessons that can be drawn from her orchids someday.
