Eye-Popping Zinnias

Zinnias
by Valerie Worth

Zinnias, stout and stiff,
Stand no nonsense: their colors
Stare, their leaves
Grow straight out, their petals
Jut like clipped cardboard,
Round, in neat flat rings.

Even cut and bunched,
Arranged to please us
In the house, in water, they
Will hardly wilt—I know
Someone like zinnias; I wish
I were like zinnias.
— from All the Small Poems and Fourteen More

These brilliantly colored zinnias are gracing the parking strip of a neighbor’s home.  Aren’t they amazing!

Zinnias planted by a driveway

Bees love ’em

Stout and stiff zinnia with blue sky

Petals jutting like clipped cardboard