us, in another version

in another version of this,
the forsythia didn’t forget
to bloom in its yellow dress,

a bright startlement
against the old red bricks

and in another version,
waking up beside you
would be almost ordinary –

the difference being the margin
between falling and fallen

flower etiquette

our forsythia doesn’t bloom,
never having been properly pruned

the workmen (dirty-jeaned, bantering)
being more adept at paint and plumbing

than the etiquette of flowers