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Cory Garcia

Dahlia

Born of Love

Oh Dahlia… born of love
The sorrowful maiden’s first flower
Her sweetest treasure from the garden that was her life
 
How she loved watching you grow
Your roots deep… your resolve strong
Her heart was yours upon first bloom
The vectors of heredity revealed
 
Oh Dahlia… saffron angel… paragon of loveliness
She observed the other flowers blushing in your presence
How the stars, pale by comparison, envied your beauty
Nature’s fireworks indeed!
 
To her you were more than a flower
So precious to her heart
Comforted in knowing that while she was away
You illuminated and nurtured the garden that was her life
 
Oh Dahlia… how like a prophet whose name you bear
Rendering judgment beneath a palm tree
Your colors her eyes beheld… becoming music to her soul
The songs you sang… untaught, natural, and cherished
 
There you grew both the flower and the gardener
Lost in dreams and wondering
Would they ever be fulfilled
Day after day tending the garden that was her life
 
Oh Dahlia… natures grace
Woeful day to see you depart
Plucked from her garden… petals falling
Crudely used for ornamentation and WILLD rituals
 
Bittersweet to know you would return someday
Taunted by dreams unrealized… as the seasons changed
The memory of your beauty still lingered
In the heart of the sorrowful maiden
 
Oh Dahlia… mighty perennial
How when spring returned she was amazed to see
The obstacles in your life… like mountains…
Now flowed beneath your dimensionless number
 
What joy was hers to watch you grow anew
How you did bloom!
Renewed… flushed with tinges of wine
 
Oh Dahlia… sweet incandescent revelation
Pollination… giving honey to the bee
And flower after flower now hers to see
Such joy there is in your posterity
 
Now looking at them all
She remembers how her heart was held
At the blooming of her Dahlia
Her first flower… born of love… whose name is forever
Written on her heart

A puzzler for me to write... written at the request of my Grandmother for her eldest daughter Deborah

I wanted to tell their story only using the definition of their names and my grandmothers nickname for her oldest daughter.

- A play on the name Delores and Deborah.
- And Dahlia (Delores's nickname for Deborah)
- I used the definitions of their names and the characteristics of the names/nickname to tell their story.

The Story
My grandmother Delores - whose name means sorrowful maiden was married and went through hell and back for her children. She raised them alone and many of her grandchildren and great grandchildren as well. Her husband turned out to be a selfish run around who abandoned the family and left her to fend for herself. They barely scrapped by and often went without.

Delores was very much in love with her husband when she had Deborah (Whom she calls her Dahlia). As Deborah grew up and her mothers marriage disintegrated she took on many of the responsibilities of a surrogate mother to her siblings while Delores worked as a janitor.

Later in life Deborah suffered the same misuse at the hands of her ex-husband.

Still Deborah made her way in life and found success and had children of her own. Much to the delight of Delores who has enjoyed for years her children, grand children and great grandchildren.


There are more but here are a few of the obvious characteristics of the names used:

Sorrowful Maiden - Definition of Delores's name (fits the story as well)

Other flowers blushing... saffron angel... natures fireworks- Deborah's siblings were often jealous (fits the characteristics of the Dahlia)

like a prophet - Deborah in the bible (Great Woman of the bible...she was forced to take care of business as their was poor leadership from men in her time) (fits the story)

Crudely used for ornamentation and WILLD rituals - Dahlia's were often used not only for medicinal purposes but also for ornamentation... WILLD plays on the man who classified the genus of the Dahlia. (fits the story)

like mountains now flowed beneath your dimensionless number - playing on how in the bible it says we have faith to move mountains and dimensionless numbers is a play on the Deborah scientific term used to describe the fluidity of materials under certain conditions (fits the mountain line and their story)

This was a challenging one for me but well worth it to see Delores smile :)

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