James Crews: The Trouble with Beauty

The trouble with beauty

is the clinging to it,

wanting things to stay

the way they first appeared

like the wildflowers 

I picked fresh from the yard

and placed in a jamjar

of water on the table,

forced to watch each day

as pink crown vetch

shriveled and dropped away,

as Queen Anne’s lace

yellowed and dried out

like whole constellations

of white stars gone

supernova all at once.

How we want to arrest

each other too, the bodies

and faces of loved ones,

their skin once as soft

to the touch as the petals

of a daisy on the day

it first opened to the world.

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Copyright 2023 James Crews

James Crews is the author of the essay collection, Kindness Will Save the World, and editor of the forthcoming The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace & Renewal. A widely published poet, James lives with his husband in the woods of Southern Vermont. 

A Bouquet of Queen Anne’s Lace (Source: Peonies and Posies)