Bulbs Alive
A doctor by day
Ralph spends his nights
ordering tulip bulbs
from Holland
beautiful and rare
to arrive in autumn
to plant and think about
for months ahead until
spring arrives and the
tulips become a rainbow
beautiful in his garden.
Ralph talks about tulips
at the office every day
where he pulls small bulbs
from the gardens of patients.
Unlike his tulips
those bulbs don’t grow,
never become a rainbow.
Donal Mahoney
