Sunflowers

He falls from the sky

into a field

of sunflowers.

He lays there, stunned

and breathless.  He gasps

to open his lungs.

He stares up through

tall stalks and leaves,

plates of yellow balancing

in the breeze.

Plates swaying. He remembers

his mother standing

at the sink in the kitchen,

washing the dishes

after breakfast.

He sees the sky. He wonders

if the memories of the dead

remember the living. He wonders

if the memories of the living

remember the living.

Yellow plates, brown centers,

sway in the breeze.

Photograph by Miodrag Mokricki via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.