The Sunflower

Oh yes, I can thrive on the rocky fringe

Of your lovely garden;

Just give me a crevice where I can cling --

If it sounds like boasting, I beg

Your pardon.

That's all I need, just the tiniest space.

For can't you see how I set my face

Toward the flaming sun?

That, friend, is the secret of how I gorw,

And it's all I ask, I'd have you know!

No, you needn't send frehets of water my way

I'm a sturdy sunflower;

The occasional rain is all I need,

Then watch me grow straight and tall

By the hour.

The drought has no terror for one like me,

And that is a truth that all can see

As I bask in the sun.

Just give me a bit of earth to claim

And I'll show you success that is worth the name.

Some call me the pest of the garden plot

And resent my intrusion;

It's the empty old creed of the squatter's right

And I'll grow up to prove that it's one

More delusion.

For beatuy is beauty on any man's ground.

And I'm here by the right of the place

I found where no flower grew.

You can't push me off from this arid spot

Where the soil is bare and the sun is hot.

Perhaps you'd do well, then, to study my ways;

Ah yes, or to emulate

My manner of taking what others don't want

And setting my roots in a sterile place,

Calling it my estate.

For see what a miracle I have wrought

With only the hope the day has brought,

And the light of the sun,

To turn my face to the smiling skies

In a flash of gold for your mortal eyes!

 (Copyright, 1940)