The Trouble With Beauty - James Crews

[Lawrence Robinson]

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 jam jar 
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.

	- James Crews