Scarlet Zinnia

The Victorians dubbed the zinnia, “the Cinderella in the garden.” She usually presages the close of summer and autumn’s imminence, but there is nothing forlorn about her, given her lavish burst of color.

          Zinnias                                    by Valerie Worth (1933-1994)

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 the water, they
Will hardly wilt–I know
Someone like zinnias: I wish
I were like zinnias.